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THE OLD PATHS 



TREATISE ON SANCTIFICATION. 



SOTHFTURE 



THE ONLY AUTHORITY 



By Rev. THOMAS MITCHELL. 



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"Thus saith thb Loed, Stand yk in the ways, andske, and ask for the 
Old Paths ; whhkein is the good way, and walk therein, and 

YE SHALL FIND REST FOE YOUR SOUL. — JeT. vi, 16. 



ALBANY: 

CHARLES VAN BENTHUYSEN & SONS' PRINT. 
1869. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, 

By Rev. THOMAS MITCHELL, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern 

District of New York. 



^ Library 
QP Congress 



WASHING? 



Or- 






V- 



^ INTRODUCTION. 



Truth has nothing to lose, but everything to 
gain, by impartial investigation. It was once 
asked, '* What is truth ?^' but Pilate went out 
before the great master had an opportunity of 
answering; had he waited to hear this, it would 
have been, " Thy word (God^s) is truth." This 
comprehends a perfect system of the history 
of two worlds — the present and the eternal — 
given in advance by the inspirer of the sacred 
Scriptures, and of course nothing but the con- 
summate development, or finishing up of the 
present world, and the establishment of the 
eternal, can fullj^ unfold the whole of its grand 
design. Froni this consideration it follows 
that as history fills up its written destiny, iti^ 
divine authenticity not only becomes a matter 
of demonstration, but its outlines and details 
correspondingly become better understood. 
This revelation contemplates the present world 



4 InTR OB UCTION. 

and its inhabitants as merely temporary; the 
world a transitory abode, with resources adap- 
ted to sustain the transitory race, from among 
whom the great creator has been from the very 
beginning, and still is interested in it only for 
the purpose of selecting subjects whose nature 
in time becomes harmonized by adherence to 
' the principles it proposes, with the rectitude 
and holiness of Divine Government. To ascer- 
tain precisely the provisions and requisitions 
adapted to remould human nature for this 
purpose, is the great lesson imposed upon the 
race theoretically and experimentally to learn. 
That man should have been eighteen hundred 
years since the instructions were finished indis- 
pensable to its conception and made so poor 
progress, presents a sad reflection, not upon its 
obscurity nor upon the capacity to compre- 
hend, but has its origin in the heart, and 
philosophically can be traced to no other cause 
than the repugnance of the human spirit to 
submit to its authoritj^ 

Whatever other causes were conducive to the 
rejection of Jesus, by the Jews, the real one 
had its origin in the purity of his character 



Introduction. 5 

and precepts. Were his propositions calculated 
to pamper human pride and sentiment — con- 
ceding man^s moral ability to cultivate and 
develop his own nature for the intimate society 
of God, in the eternal world, had he even 
been required to make sacrifices of everthing 
he possessed, even self-immolation, as the con- 
dition of entrance therein — think ye not heaven, 
long ere this, world have been crowded with 
a population? Could he even have been per- 
mitted to enter there on condition of adherence 
to his own opinions, formed as they must have 
been in harmony with his feelings, instinctive 
with pride, and by his own unassisted assiduity 
and not required to relinquish them when there 
was confliction with those of Jesus, think ye 
heaven's gates would not have been thronged, 
as they never had been, with saintly travelers? 
Or had this requirement been so modified that 
the opinions of other men might have been 
adopted as the standard of those who came 
after, and they "not required to cut them off, 
though dear as right arms, or pluck them out, 
though dear as right eyes, when found not 
to have God's authorship, would not the day 



6 Introduction. 

have arrived and the jewels, such as thej^ were' 
all been gathered withm the goldeu walls of 
the '' Jerusalem which is above?'^ 

The greatest obstacle with which the march 
of truth, or the revealed thoughts of God have 
had to coutend, indicating his purposes with 
the race, has been the servile, cringing worship 
of the human opinion of the past, or the pride 
of its own. 

Seeing this to have been the deplorable 
course of the church, which had driven it into 
the midnight darkness of the dark ages, the 
reformers adopted as the basis of their move- 
ments, and gave expression to the sublime 
sentiment, that the " Holy Scriptures are a suffi- 
cient guide to faith and practice." But how 
has this been followed? The answer is. historic, 
and shows that not a single denomination 
composing the Protestant church, but which 
has, to a greater or less extent, outraged this 
cardinal declaration, by acting upon a narrow 
bigotry, fearing to think independently as the 
reformers, Luther, Calvin and Wesley did. 
But the opinions of these reformers are defended 



Introduction. 7 

by such, as tenaciously as though they were 
divine authority. 

Had Luther acted upon this principle, one 
thunder peal from the Vatican would have 
diiven him ignominiously back into the deadly 
embrace of the "Mother of Harlots.'^ 

Had the godly and heroic Wesley acted 
thus, the very first onset of the enemies of 
spirituality in the Church of England, which 
at that time was dead, would have struck 
terror to his spirit, and left the world deprived 
of the great revival wrought by his instru- 
mentality. To concede to any man, since the 
revelator died, and the book of God was 
finished, the exclusive or private right to 
interpret a single passage of Scripture, or to 
establish a single doctrine not to be questioned 
by any who came after, is nothing but a servile 
prostitution of the God-bestowed prerogative, 
freedom of thought and corresponding respon- 
sibility, not to man, but to man^s maker. But 
we rejoice that we live in an age when to 
trammel the liberty of mind is considered 
intolerable, when the crafty anathemas of the 
bigot or the ex-communication thunders of 



8 Intr od uction. 

church power fall as dead as the Pope's bull 
agahist the comet. Such a sentiment intrudes 
itself into the place of God, and forbids the 
injunction binding upon every individual, 
"' search the Scriptures/' as well as the right to 
criticise, not only the sentiments of uninspii^ed 
men, but also those of apostles and even of 
angels. Says the apostle of the Gentiles, and 
he, next to Jesus, is our best authority: ''If 
we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other 
gospel unto you than we have preached, let 
him be accursed.'' If he comes apparently 
direct from the courts of heaven, with a com- 
munication in conflict with Paul's original 
gospel, which he did not receive from man, 
but " by inspiration of God," and though it 
bears the indisputable signet of Paul or 
Gabriel, reject it, and let the bearer stand 
classified with the pestilent propagators of 
error. 

God challenges the world to this investiga- 
tion. " Come, now, and let us reason together, 
saith the Lord." Let us reason with a child- 
like simplicity, looking alone to the infinite 
source of wisdom revealed in the holy book 



InTE OB JJCTION. 9 

of God, fearing no result to which such inves- 
tigation leads, though it conflicts with the 
opinions of the world of mere human intellect. 

In the prosecution of this task we submit the 
following rules of interpretation: 

First Let the Bible define and explain its 
own terms, figures, and symbols. 

Second. Give every passage a literal con- 
struction unless its own connection and phra- 
seology renders such a course absurd, by 
bringing it in collision with truths elsewhere 
established by positive language. 

Third, The proper connection of any given 
passage is not necessarily that with which it 
stands immediately connected, but that bearing 
upon the same subject, found recorded any- 
where in the Scripture. Select all these texts 
from where they stand, put them together, and 
you have the truth in relation to that subject, 
and all the light with which you can be favored, 
unless the author of the book condescends to 
give another revelation, which is unnecessary, 
for the present one is full and harmonious. 
This is what Paul calls *^ rightly dividing the 
word of truth.'' 



10 Introductiox. 

Fourth. All passages belonging to any par- 
ticular subject must contain one or more of the 
peculiar features of that subject, by which it 
may be identified as belonging to the same. 

Fifth, The truth in relation to any doctrine 
must be established by those passages which 
speak of it in positive and unequivocal lan- 
guage, and those texts evidently belonging to 
the same subject but which only admits of infer- 
ential testimony, no inference should be drawn 
from them, at variance with the truths as 
already established by the positive texts. 

Sixth, No doctrine should be predicated 
upon mere inference, neither upon one isolated 
passage of Scripture. Any true doctrine will be 
found interspersed throughout the whole Bible. 

Seventh, In studying the Scriptures, the New 
Testament must be considered a commentary 
on the old. 

Eighth, Never be afraid of results to which 
you may be driven by your investigations, as 
this will inevitably bias your mind, and dis- 
qualify you to arrive at ultimate truth. 

Ninth, If you would understand the " mind 
of the spirit, which is the word of God," search 



InTR OB UCTION, \ \ 

it with the humility and sincerity of a little 
child; heed the direction: '* Learn of me, for 
I am meek and lowly m heart." 

Tenth. Consult no author as authority, les.s 
than divine, in so momentous an undertaking. 

Eleventh, Pursue this course for life, and 
with as much independence as though you 
were the only one concerned. "Prove all 
things, and hold fast that which is good." — 
Paul. 



CHAPTER I. 

WHAT DOES CHRISTIANITY PROPOSE TO ACCOMPLISH IN THE 
NATURE OF MAN? 

In answering this question, we propose to 
show: 1st. To change that nature so that it is 
as easy to love and submit to God's govern- 
ment as it was before averse it. That this 
change is denominated in the Bible conversion, 
the new birth, regeneration, a new heart, being 
a new creature, justification — such are called 
believers. They are said to be clean, pure 
children of adoption, sanctified; they are said 
to be in Christ, children of God, etc. 

The position we assume, and in these pages 
shall attempt to vindicate is, that all these 
expressions are descriptive of every newly 
converted sinner, and that therefore they are 
as clean, pure, sanctified and holy as it is 
possible for man in a mortal state to be. They 
may from that moment grow in knowledge and 
in gracious favor with God till the end of life, 



14 The Old Paths. 

and, indeed, through all eternity, but this will 
make them no more clean or pure. 

Underlying this controversey , is the principle 
of God's moral ability, growing out of his 
relations to mankind, in view of the arrange- 
ment of grace devised in infinite wisdom and 
love for his salvation. 

We do not mean the ability of God as dis- 
played in the creation of worlds, involving the 
absolute government of unintelligent matter 
which had no will, and therefore no element 
of resistance, but in view of his scheme of 
salvation what it is consistent for himself to do. 

The question is: Is God limited in his power 
to change human nature into sympathy with 
himself as to numbers or in degree, and if so, 
by what ? 

We answer, first, as to numbers, that he is 
as able to save and make holy the whole adult 
race, as to thus change and save a single one 
of its members. 

In the discussion respecting the limited or 
partial salvation of men, making it depend 
upon God's foreknowledge, decrees or corres- 
ponding predetermination, has resulted in 



Treatise on Sanctification. \^ 

erroneous conclusions, from the fact that it has 
overlooked the vital question or principle upon 
which the whole argument rests. This requires 
that it was absolutely indispensable that God 
should have become incarnate in the person of 
Jesus Christ, and accomplish all he did in 
order to make it possible that one sinner could 
be converted, and that God could consistent 
with the infallibility of his word or law. 
whose voice is: "• The soul that sinneth, it shall 
die," to bring that sinner to a condition of 
reconciliation with his own views, feelings and 
government; and thus was established the 
pi'inciple by which he could also bring every 
other sinner into the same gracious harmony 
with himself ; that is, all sinners placed in the 
same circumstances, or as members of a com- 
mon, fallen race. 

Of course, this does not include fallen angels, 
and we doubt whether it included our first 
parents, for whose acts there were no extenu- 
ating circumstances — who had no want of 
balance, growing out of physical, moral or 
mental weakness, such as they have transmitted 
to all their offspring. Paul tells us that the 



16 The Old Paths. 

woman was deceived, but the man was not — 
he offers no excuse for his sin, but audaciously 
answers his maker: '^ The woman did give me, 
and I did eat.'' That his oflfepring were thus 
infected is obvious from such expressions as 
these: '* The parents have eaten sour grapes, 
and the children's teeth are set on edge." ** I 
was born in sin and shapen in iniquity." 

Every man now has his weakness, and which 
is his *' besetting sin." Hence, as God per- 
mitted this race to come into existence with 
such inherited moral inability, it is easy to see 
that it might be made the grounds for doing 
for them what he could not do consistently for 
their original progenitors. The promise was 
made to the seed of the woman, not to the 
woman herself, or to Adam himself. Indeed, 
there is not an intimation in the whole Bible 
by which we may even infer the salvation of 
Adam or Eve. 

We read the history of Abel offering sacri- 
fice unto God, but not of Adam. Indeed, it 
seems that if it were possible for God to save 
the rebel Adam, it were also just as possible 
and consistent for him to save the rebel angels, 



Treatise on Sanctification. 17 

** who kept not their first estate; " and that he 
ha^ not done the latter, leaves us to infer not 
only that he could not, but also equally that 
he could not convert and save the first human 
sinners, Adam and Eve, who kept not their 
first estate. Bnt aside from this, the great 
principle is established that " God can be just, 
and yet the justifier of him that belie veth in 
Jesus." Thus justice is vindicated, and God 
is able, that is, consistent with himself, his 
word an4 government, to " impute to an unjust 
sinner his faith for righteousness," which makes 
him as sinless and holy as though he had never 
sinned; and do we not see that this principle 
embraces every sinner as much as any who has 
faith in Jesus ? This provision of grace to our 
race is not only therefore as extensive as that 
race, but able to make every member of that 
race as holy as God is holy, according to the 
command: "Be ye holy, for I am holy; " and 
if it were not possible for man to be made thus 
holy, is it not folly, or worse, on the part of 
God requiring of man what is impossible; and 
may not every man take up and reiterate the 
charge of the unprofitable servant? "Thou 
2 



18 The Old Paths. 

art an austere man; thou takest up that thou 
laiclst not down, and reapest that thou didst 
not sow." But instead of this being true, it is 
declared positively that his ability is also with- 
out limit in the direction of an entire change 
of nature. 

"He is able to save them to the uttermost 
who come unto God by him, seeing he ever 
liveth to make intercession for them.'^ What we 
understand the Scriptures to teach in regard to 
a man's being made "holy, as God requires/' 
is, that he must first become a penitent sinner, 
feeling he is lost without Christ, and not only 
consenting, but also humbly and heartily pray- 
ing to be saved from guilt through his name, 
and become conscious that his praj^er is heard 
and answered. 

This change begets in the pardoned culprit 
such feelings and views toward God, who up 
to this time had been considered his enemy, 
but now his dearest friend. We say the know- 
ledge of this change is so great and powerful 
that it gives strength to resist all temptations, 
come from whatever source, to displease this 
God who has thus manifested to him such love 



Treatise on Sanctification. \ 9 

and mercy. This is precisely such strength as 
would result if a man who had forfeited his 
life and estate by the flagrant violation of the 
laws of his country toward a third person, 
who mercifully and freely comes forward, 
redeems and restores to him both. Would 
such a man ever do an act to displease such a 
friend? Would he have the least disposition 
to do so ? Would it be necessary for any 
other change to be wrought in his nature, only 
a knowledge of this gracious and magnanimous 
interference in order to secure his affection and 
undeviating fidelity ? What temptation would 
be sufficiently powerful to induce him to speak 
any word or do any act which would injure 
the feelings of such a friend — especially would 
not this be impossible immediately on leaving 
the criminal court before whose bar he had 
been arraigned to answer for his crimes ? We 
can easily conceive how, in the lapse of time, 
and especially if the intercourse between these 
two had been broken off" by being removed at 
a great distance from each other, coldness might 
ensue, and gradually the wishes, feelings and 
injunctions of his friend become unheeded 



20 The Old Paths, 

mid forgotten; but if he had coiitiiuied to 
reside in the vicinity of his benefactor, and 
also to be the continued recipient of his favors, 
and also that this friend had th*^ ability and 
disposition to confer upon him every favor he 
needed, and had promised all this, would not 
this have the eflFect to increase the attachment 
of the latter ? Now, to carry out the illustrar 
tion, we will suppose that the condition upon 
which this friend proposed to confer any and 
all of these benefits was, that the man receiving 
them should never remove out of the vicinity 
of his friend, but to remain and trust him for 
the fulfillment of his gracious promises; and 
do we not see that had he complied with this 
condition, it would seem almost impossible for 
him to ofiend such a friend; and also that the 
very act of removing, or thoughts of it, from 
this vicinity, would, in itself, be a grievous 
wrong, committed against this friend — indeed, 
a crime nothing less than infidelity. Now, by 
ceasing to hold communication, the moral dis- 
tance becomes equal to the territorial, and 
under such circumstances the wanderer finds 
himself acting without regard to the injunc- 



Treatise on Sanctification 21 

tions, wishes and feelings of him who had 
been, and still was, his best friend, but who 
had now put himself beyond the reach of 
further friendship or favor. So is it with the 
sinner, who has forfeited all claim to the favor 
of God, and all right to eternal life. He came 
to God in the name of Jesus, a true penitent, 
and heartily prayed for pardon, who heard and 
granted his request. The man was happy, and 
now the injunction was: ** Abide in me, and ye 
shall bring forth much fruit, so shall ye be my 
disciple." The manifestation of such love and 
mercy captivates and charms, and gives strength 
to do just what God requires. Such a man 
exclaims: '* Whom have I in heaven but thee, 
and there is none upon earth I desire beside 
thee." That this is the true idea, is shown by 
such passages as this: ''As many as received 
him to them gave he power to become the sons 
of God," which also shows clearly that there 
is an important sense in which penitent sinners 
are in Christ's favor; and as long as he thus 
abides in him, there is no power on earth or 
hell which is either able to induce him to sin, 
or to pluck him out of God's hand. Hence it 



22 The Old Paths, 

is said: ''He that is born of God doth not 
commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and 
he cannot sin, because he is born of God." 

While he therefore remains thus born of 
God, and by common consent this is his con- 
version or justification, he is holy and spotless 
from sin and its contaminating effects and con- 
sequences. But do we not perceive that the 
man himself may remove his cause out of the 
hands of Christ, which all children do when 
they commit the first known and deliberate 
transOTession asrainst God, as well as all adult 
Christians by doing the same, and by this 
estrano^ement thev are ao-ain sinners: and as 
they thus recede from Christ, " the true light,'* 
they become involved in moral darkness. To 
such, says Jesus: "If the light in you become 
darkness, how great is that darkness." But as 
long as such abide in Christ, is it not clear that 
the wicked one toucheth them not, and who 
are therefore " as holj^ as God is holy," and as 
"perfect as their Father which is in heaven is 
perfect." 

Peter speaks thus concerning this condition 
of the new birth: "Being born again, not of 



Treatise on Sanctification. 23 

corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, which is 
the word of God, which liveth and abideth 
forever." Hence we see that the seed whicli 
remaineth in those who are born again, and 
which abideth forever, is the word of God, 
rendering it impossible in such a state to com- 
mit sin, in the proper sense of that term. This 
is still further explained by Jesus, thus: "Now 
ye are clean through the words which I have 
spoken unto you; abide in me, and I in you; 
as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except 
it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye 
abide in me; I am the vine, ye are the branches; 
he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same 
bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye 
can do nothing. If ye abide in me, and my 
words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, 
and it shall be done unto you; herein is my 
Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so 
shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath 
loved me, so have I loved you; continue ye in 
my love. If ye keep my commandments ye 
shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my 
Father's commandments and abide in his love. 
These things have I spoken unto you that my 



24 The Old Paths. 

joy might remain in you, and that your joy 
might be full.'' We have in these plain teach- 
ings of Jesus and the apostles, a condition of 
Christian experience which is the highest, most 
holy and perfect, possible, and in which it is 
impossible to commit sin. Lot us briefly ana- 
lyze its elements. We remark in the first 
place, that it presents a standard of holiness 
and purity the most complete and perfect, and 
which therefore admits of no increase; except 
it be that class who are in Christ as true peni- 
tents and who have consecrated themselves to 
the service of God for life, and who are earn- 
estly praying for pardon and assimilation to 
Christ's image and thus have commenced to 
bear fruit. The express instruction providing 
for these, is this: *' Every branch in me that 
beareth fruit, the Father purgeth it that it may 
bring forth more fruit.'' This purging will 
be accomplished when God, according to their 
faith, receives, pardons and sanctifies them, 
after which they are prepared to ''bring forth 
more fruit." Another remark is, that as this 
instruction embrac'es all who are m Christ, both 
penitent and pardoned sinners, and as they are 



Treatise on Sanctification, 25 

thus in Christ at the commencement of their 
Christian career, therefore on the authority of 
Jesus they are then in the highest state of 
holiness and Christian purity which it is pos- 
sible to attain, and to maintain which makes 
them one with Jesus as he is one with his 
Father. According to these instructions we 
learn that Christ's disciples are in him not as 
a mere form, but vitally, **as the branch is 
in the vine;" not by a mere heartless profession, 
or a round of ritualism, but hi as close sympathy 
as he is with the Father — as a branch is in the 
the vine so that it bears fruit. 

They are clean through the words which 
Jesus had sp 3ken unto them. This word was 
the incorruptible seed. While this seed 
remained in them, they could not sin, or while 
they thus abided in Christ and his love abided 
in them, as his Father's love abided in him. 

We are taught from these relations that if 
there was perfect love between Jesus and his 
Father, it was the same between him and his 
disciples. If there was perfect purity and 
fidelity between Jesus and his Father, the same 
existed between him and his disciples. If 



26 The Old Paths. 

Jesus had perfect faith in his Father, so had 
these disciples in him. "If ye abide in me, 
and ask anything in my name, I will do it." 

Again, their joy was full; no joy could be 
more perfect than this. They glorified the 
Father, which they could not have done with 
a corrupt heart. They were not only his dis- 
ciples, but Christ had loved them as the Father 
had loved him; here was perfect love. " If 
ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in 
my love, even as I have kept my Father's com- 
mandments and abide in his love." The 
commandment of Jesus, upon which hangs all 
the law and the prophets, is: " Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with 
all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with 
all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself.'' 
Another of these commandments is: "Abide in 
me. These things I command you, that ye 
love one another. If the world hate you, ye 
know that it hated me before it hated you; if 
ye were of the world, the world would love 
its own; but because ye are not of the world, 
but I have chosen you out of the world, there- 
fore the world hateth you." " I have given 



Treatise on Sanctification. 27 

unto them the words which thou gavest me, and 
they have received them, and have known 
surely that I came out from thee, and they 
have believed that thou didst send me; I pray 
for them; I pray* not for the world, but for 
them which thou hast given me, for they arc 
thine, and all mine are thine, and all thine are 
mine; and I am glorified in them. Holy 
Father, keep through thine own name those 
whom thou hast given me, that they may be 
one as we are." " I have given them thy word, 
and the world hath hated them because they 
are not of the world, even as I am not of the 
world; sanctify them through thy truth; as 
thou hast sent me into the world, even so have 
I also sent them into the world, and for their 
sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might 
be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray 
I for these alone, but for them also which shall 
believe on me through their word; that they 
all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and 
I in thee, that they also may be one in us; 
that the world may believe that thou hast sent 
me, and the glory which thou hast given me I 
have given them, that they may be one, I in 



28 The Old Paths. 

them and thou in me, that they may be made 
perfect in one, and that the world may know 
tliat thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as 
thou hast loved me, and I have declared unto 
them thy name, and will declare it, that the 
love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in 
them, and I in them/^ Christ had given them 
Ms word^ and thej^- had kept it; they had not 
preferred the words of men. His word 
remained in them; through these words of 
Jesus they were clean. They had known 
surely that Christ came from the Father; they 
believed God had sent him. He prayed for 
them because they belonged to God, and he 
was glorified in them. Holy Father, keep 
through thine own name those whom thou hast 
given me, that they may be one, as we are one. 
No more sin, depravity, unholiness, carnal 
mindedness, impurity, uncleanness, or love of 
the world, existed between these saints and 
Jesus than between him and his Father. Christ 
prayed that they might be made perfect in 
one, for the reason just assigned: ''That the 
world might know that thou hast sent me, and 
hast loved me, as I have loved them. I pray 



Treatise on Sanctification. 29 

that thou shouldst keep them from the evil that 
is in the world.^' They were not only justified, 
but glorified. "The glory which thou gavest 
me I have given them.^' This made them per- 
fectly one with Christ. " That they may be 
made perfect in one, that the world may know 
that I have loved them as thou hast loved 
me.'^ 

The idea here is that there is as uninter- 
rupted love existing between Christ and his 
saints as that between him and his Father, and 
of course must be perfect. But it may be said 
that these saints, thus newly chosen to be 
Christ^s disciples, were not pure; they still 
were partially depraved; they still had the 
carnal mind; were still unholy, impure and 
unclean, because Christ prayed that they might 
be sanctified, and as sanctification means to 
make an unholy heart holy, or an imperfect 
one perfect, an unclean one clean, or in other 
words, to do for a saint what justification leaves 
undone. 

Well, if sanctification does mean this, then 
Jesus must have had an unholy, impure, imper- 
fect, unclean, and a partially depraved heart, 



30 The Old Paths. 

because he uses this term in the same comiec- 
tion as applicable to himself : '* For their sakes 
I sanctify myself. '^ Now, as Jesus had no such 
heart as this, therefore the word sanctification 
has no such meaning, but must have one which 
admits of such an application; and that it has, 
we shall shortly attempt to show. 

The idea that the depravity returns to a 
sanctified heart by the commission of a sin — 
we mean the known and deliberate violation 
of the law of God, for nothing else is a sin; 
but this is a reversion of the order, the fact 
being that the return of this depravity, caused 
by taking his heart out of Christ^s keeping, 
makes it possible for such a heart to commit 
sin; for it is impossible for him thus to sin 
while he remains in Christ, and his word (the 
seed) remains in him, embracing his warnings, 
threateniugs, injunctions, promises and conse- 
quences of turning away from the living God, 
must first be removed from the heart. Such a 
heart may sin under the most aggravating cir- 
cumstances, even to " count the blood of the 
covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy 
thing, and (thus") do despite to the spirit of 



Treatise on Saxctiffcation, 3 { 

grace." The elements of such a fall are, first, 
darkness, a gradual failure to desire the spiri- 
tuality of the law of God, and to see "the 
exceeding sinfulness of sin; " and lastly, to 
lose his strength to resist temptation, and 
again "does the wicked one eflfectually touch 
him,'' and has brought him in captivity to his 
will. The seven other unclean spirits have 
returned and again dwell in the house which 
was sanctified, swept and garnished. He is in 
the condition of the branch which has ceased 
to bear fruit — is thenceforth good for nothing 
but to be " cast forth and trodden under the 
foot of men.'' " The last state of that man is 
worse than the first." But the most prominent 
feature of this uncleanness which ensues to the 
man, who "like the sow that was washed, but 
has returned again to her wallowing in the 
mire," is that of a perfect loss of strength; 
such are represented as being "twice dead, 
plucked up by the roots." 

A sinner has no more strength to extricate 
himself from his moral, sinful impurity, than 
has a dead man power to bring himself to life. 
"He is dead in trespasses and in sins." And 



32 The Old Paths. 

his only hope is thus amiouuced: ''For when 
we were without strength in due time Christ 
died for the ungodly.'- "And a^ many as 
received him, to them gave he power to become 
the sons of God, even to them that believed 
on his name.'' The depravity of the human 
heart is often so involved in mystery by the 
use of unscriptural and ambiguous terms and 
figures, that the impression as to its nature, if 
definite at all, is that it is something in a man 
as an abstraction — a being, not essentiallj^ con- 
nected with his physical, mental, or moral 
constitution — but the ideas the Scripture con- 
veys in regard to it are, that Christ is the light, 
"The son of righteousness," whose example 
and precept clearly points out the right and 
the wrong of every question which can possibly 
arise among mankind. If a man walk in this 
light, " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth him 
from all sin, " but if he recedes from it, he 
becomes involved in darkness: "If the light 
in you becomes darkness how great is that 
darkness." Christ is his strength: " We are 
kept by the power of God through faith unto 
salvation" (final salvation), but if he loses his 



Treatise on Sanctification. 33 

faith, he puts himself beyond the reach of that 
power to save and that light to illuminate, 
Christ is his wisdom, but if he leaves Christ^s 
school, he ceases to learn of him, ^' who was 
meek and lowly in heart, " and as a natural 
consequence he becomes, in heart, proud and 
haughty — which lesson he prefers to learn 
of men, adopting their teachings instead of 
Christ's. 

Christ is his sanctification; which consists in 
being kept from the evil that is in the world, 
by^ the power of God. Thus is " his vessel 
preserved in sanctification and in honor." 

But if he ceases to abide in Christy and his 
word ceases to abide in him, he becomes again 
unsanctified and unclean, which is the result 
of his backsliding in heart and life from God, 
and not at all because he did not become more 
pure than he was at his conversion. 

His thoughts, motives and feelings become 
unclean, unsanctified, the result of which is his 
words and actions, the fruit of the corrupt 
tree, its natural manifestations, are unclean and 
corrupt. 

What is more clearly and certainly taught 
3 



34 The Old Paths. 

by these infallible doctrines of Christ himself, 
than that these disciples whom he had chosen 
were models of Christian perfection and purity, 
between whom and Jesus there was no more 
unsauctified and imperfect moral nature exist- 
ing than between him and God his Father ? 
*' They are one as we are one.'' "As the Father 
hath loved me, so have I loved you; continue 
ye in my love.'' 

Here we are presented with the picture of 
the church as Jesus formed it, and which was 
not confined to the disciples, but included the 
saints of all ages. "I pray not for these 
alone, but for all them also who shall believe 
in me through their word, that they all may be 
one as we are one." 

It must be distinctly understood, therefore, 
that this was the condition of the puritj^ of all 
believers when first chosen to be Christ's dis- 
ciples. "I have chosen them out of the 
world; " " Chosen throusfh sanctification of 
the spirit and belief of the truth." Such, 
therefore, is their purity, and such will it for- 
ever remain, unless they cease to abide in 
Christ. 



Treatise on Sanctification. 35 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE MEANING OF THE WORD SANCTIFICATION. 

We may remark that the greatest source of 
error, with which the world has been cursed, 
is to be attributed either to the wrong defini- 
tion of words, or to none at all; and the error 
we are attempting to expose is a prominent 
example of the wrong definition of the word 
^'sanctification,'' and if such is the fact, the 
erroneous doctrine predicated upon it has no 
respectable existence. 

We have already shown from the application 
of the word *' sanctification" to Jesus Christ, that 
it cannot mean to make an unholy thing or 
being holy, or an impure one pure. Such a 
definition is modern, invented by theologians 
who needed it to teach or prove their precon- 
ceived error of unbelieving believers, or sinful 
Christians. It must be remembered that before 
a commentary or theological dictionary existed 
in our world, this word was used in the inspired 
word of God by the Holy Ghost to teach a 



36 The Old Paths. 

certain truth, and of course that truth can only 
be ascertained by the application of the word 
in those passages in which it occurs; and of 
course any other, or human definition which 
conveys any other idea than is here found, has 
no authority, and must be rejected. For 
instance, if it be contended that the word 
'* sanctification " means to make an unclean 
thing or being clean, or to cleanse away moral 
impurity, we object, because Jesus says: " For 
their sakes I sanctify myself," and we leave the 
contestant for this definition to teach his doc- 
trine of the defilement and impurity of the 
Holy Jesus, if he pleases. 

The Bible definition we give of the word 
sanctification, is not only in perfect harmony 
with this application to Jesus, but also in every 
other passage to the things and beings to which 
it is applied. We say, therefore, that the word 
signifies to keep or preserve in a state of purity, 
that which has already been purified, by having 
been washed and cleansed by water — the blood 
of beasts, or the blood of Christ, or by any 
other process. In a modified sense, it some- 



Treatise on Sanctification. 37 

times is used simply to declare things or beings 
to be in a state of purity. 

We remark, in the first place, that sanctifi- 
cation admits of no degrees, and is never used 
in a limited sense, designating degrees of 
cleanness or purity. If a thing or being has 
the least degree of uncleanness or defilement, 
it is unsanctified. 

We see that the word describes something 
Jesus did for himself, and then prays that the 
Father would do that same thing for those who 
believed in him, who were already in him and 
were one with him, as he was one witli the 
Father. They had already been made per- 
fect^ — crucified to the world and the world 
unto them — they were not of the world, even 
as he was not, whom also he had glorified. 
They were, therefore, clean through the words 
which Jesus had spoken unto them, and conse- 
quently had nothing from which to be cleansed. 
But, nevertheless, they could still be sanctified; 
for whom and for which Jesus prayed, ** Sanc- 
tify them through thy truth,'' and means to 
keep or preserve them in this condition. Hence 
also the prayer, "Keep through thine own 



38 The Old Paths, 

name those whom thou has given me." Thou 
hast promised to ^'keep him in perfect peace 
whose mind is stayed upon thee, for he trusteth 
ill thee." Fulfill the promise, therefore; keep 
those clean, and from the evil that is in the 
world, who believe in me and thee. " For 
their sakes I sanctify myself," though Jesus 
could not purify himself from moral defilement, 
j^et he could keep himself pure, "unspotted 
and separate from sinners." He could preserve 
his pure being so that "No guile was found in 
him," so that the Eternal Father might pro- 
nounce the sublime encomium upon him — 
"Because thou hast loved righteousness and 
hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, 
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness 
above thy fellows." Hence the force and pro- 
priety of the expression: "For their sakes I 
sanctify myself." If I become corrupt and 
fall, as did the first Adam, even those who now 
believe in me cannot be saved; if I fall down 
and worship Satan as the first Adam did, by 
obeying him rather than God, universal ruin 
will be the result; but for their sakes I keep 
myself pure — " I sanctify myself." 



Treatise on Sanctification, 39 

The word "• sanctification/' therefore, signifies 
not to make pure, but to keep and preserve 
those pure who either had always been so, as 
Jesus had, or who had already been purified 
by his blood. This argument settles the ques- 
tion as to the meaning of the word and the 
truth taught by it, and of course the definitions 
and opinions of men or angels must fall when 
they come in contact with the infallible words 
of Jesus. 

We propose to examine, however, both from 
the Old and New Testament a number of pass- 
ages, in which the word *'sanctification,'' in 
some of its derivatives, is used, and we shall 
find this exposition legitimately deducible from 
the teachings of Jesus to be in perfect har- 
mony with them all, and of course with all 
others in the Bible, for God is too intelligent 
an author to use a word to convey a certain 
idea in one place, and quite another in others. 

The prayer of Jesus which we have already 
introduced clearly establishes this definition: 
** I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of 
the world (meaning not only the disciples, but 
all others who should believe in Jesus through 



40 The Old Paths. 

their word, after, as well as before the Holy- 
Ghost was given, and therefore through the 
preaching of the gospel in all ages of the 
Avorld), but that thou shouldst keep them from 
the the evil." '^ Sanctify them through thy 
truth; for their sakes I leanctify myself." I 
keep myself from the evil. "Holy Father, 
keep my saints also from the evil that is in the 
world," and thus "sanctify them through thy 
truth." 

Another passage relating to the sanctification 
of Jesus is the following, John^ x, 36: *'Say 
ve of him whom the Father hath sanctified and 
sent into the world, thou blasphemist, because 
I said, I am the Son of God? " Here we see 
that the Father sanctified the Son, but he did 
not cleanse him from sin or unrighteousness, 
and therefore the word ^' sanctification " does 
not mean this, 

1 Thess., iv, 22-24: ^^Abstain from all 
appearance of evil, and the very God of peace 
sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your 
whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved 
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ; faithful is he that calleth you, who also 



Treatise on Sanctification. 41 

will do it." These Christians are here exhorted 
not only to abstain from all evil, but from all 
Tvhich had the appearance of evil; they would 
thus be sanctified by the Father, the God of 
peace, as Jesus prayed: ''Keep them from the 
evil that is in the world," and not from giving 
away to the evil that is in their hearts. 

That these s^nts might be wholly preserved 
in such a state of purity, the apostle joins with 
Jesus, and offers this forcible prayer: "And I 
pray God your whole soul, body and spirit be 
preserved blameless unto the coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ; faithful is he that calleth 
you, who also will do it. Holy Father, keep 
throufich thine own name those whom thou hast 
given me, from the evil that is in the world." 

We see from this passage that the sanctifica- 
tion of these believers, for which the apostle 
prayed, was not that they might be made more 
pure, righteous or holy, but that they might 
be forever preserved blameless. No intimation 
or implication here that these saints had impure 
and corrupt hearts. 

By thus abstaining from evil they would 
abide in Christ, and his word, " the incorruptible 



42 The Old Paths, 

seed," would abide in them, and they would 
thus be sanctified through the continued belief 
of the truth; this would make them that they 
would neither be barren or unfruitful, as 
Peter has it, or as Jesus declares: '* Ye shall 
bring forth much fruit, so shall ye be my dis- 
ciples?' 

Tliis instruction assumes that those to whom 
it was addressed had been converted, born- 
again, and made righteous and holy; and their 
sanctification was that they might continue to 
abstain from all evil, and from all appearance 
of evil, by doing which they would be blame- 
less unto the comino^ of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
It was not that they had evil in their hearts, 
and by being purified from it would make them 
blameless. In what perfect harmony are the 
teachings of Paul with those of Jesus on this 
subject. 

There is another passage in this same epistle 
which illustrates and corroborates this view 
of the doctrine of sanctification, Chap, iv, 3, 4: 
*' For this is the will of God, even your sancti- 
fication; that ye should abstain from forni- 
cation; that every one of you should know how 



Treatise on Sanctification. 43 

to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor." 
And then to enforce the instruction he says, 
verse 7: ^'For God hath not called us unto 
uncleanness, but unto holiness." We here learn 
that sanctification means abstinence from un- 
cleanness, and is synonymous with holiness and 
relates to the acts of Christians, whose hearts 
here are symbolized by vessels, which had been 
already made clean and holy by the blood of 
Jesus. Every one of you should know how 
to possess his vessel (preserve it) pure and 
honorable in the sight of God, and this preser- 
ving the heart in a state of purity is sancti- 
fication, and not that of making it pure. Here 
is manifested that prominent characteristic of 
the great system of truth; strike on one, and 
immediately we become surrounded by a multi- 
tude of corroborative witnesses rising up as by 
magic, ready to give in testimony, while the 
advocates of error are dissatisfied with the 
Bible, and in their extremity are forced to 
appeal to original manuscripts and introduce 
human renderings of words to make out their 
theory. How perfectly conclusive are these 
arguments in proof of the idea that ^^sancti- 



44 The Old Paths. 

fication'' does not mean to make pure, but to 
keep that which is already pure, in a state of 
purity, being the positive teachings of Christ 
himself and of the great apostle of the Gentiles 
not leaving it involved in mystery and doubt 
by the use of equivocal or mere inferential 
language, but in the plainest, simplest, and 
most positive terms, and from passages of 
Scripture which admit of no other construction. 

It must be borne in mind that if we would 
understand any truth of the Bible, we must 
learn it from those passages which speak of it 
in the most positive language, and not to draw 
inferences from others, which only admit of 
inference, in contradiction to these. By the 
vialotion of this rule, everything, and there- 
fore nothing, can be proved from the Bible. 
We envy not the account those who thus 
pervert the scriptures of truth will have to 
render when the great judge produces the 
standard by which men are to stand or fall. 
" I judge no man (says Jesus); the words 
which I have spoken unto you, they shall judge 
you in the last day." 

Acts^ xxvi, 18: "To open their eyes, and to 



Treatise on Sanctiftcation. 45 

turn them from darkness to light, and from the 
power of Satan unto God, that they may 
receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance 
among them, which are sanctified by faith that 
is in me." 

The idea clearly taught here is, that being 
delivered from darkness and satanic power, 
and having obtained forgiveness or justification, 
their subsequent life, by faith in Christ, was 
that of sanctification, their inheritance now 
was among those who were sanctified. 

1 (7or., vi, 11: '^And such were some of 
you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, 
but ye are justified in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, and by the spirit of God.'' 

From this passage it would seem that sanc- 
tification or purity, instead of being a work 
done after justification, precedes it, by being 
washed they were sanctified, and because sanc- 
tified, they were justified. 

If we consider that purity of motive and 
intention to serve God, through Jesus Christ, 
is the puritj^ of Christianity, and as this is the 
state of every true penitent heart, it follows 
that sanctification precedes justification. 



46 The Old Paths, 

The vessels of the Temple, typical of this, 
God never received into his service until they 
had been washed clean; then were they sancti- 
fied. Whatever was in the least unclean, was 
unsanctified, and were thus unfit for the service 
of God; and it was unrighteous and criminal, 
by whomsoever committed, to use them in this 
condition. Here is the type, and we have the 
anti-type in the Christian Church. 

God receives no sinner into his service until 
he has made a full surrender, and an unre- 
served consecration of himself; and yet we 
hear those who profess to be justified believers 
engaged in seeking sanctification, and crying: 

! that my load of sin were gone ; 
O ! that I could at last submit. 

Having, therefore, never submitted to God, 
how could they be in a state of justification ? 
For a man not to ofler his body (comprehend- 
ing in this case the whole man) "a living 
sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which 
is every sinner's reasonable service, '' is to be 
rejected. He who reserves any part of his 
purposes and afi'ections from God, and places 



Treatise on Sanctification, 47 

them on any other object more than on Jesus, 
'' he is not worthy of him; " but if he conse- 
crates his heart, so that he prefers the service 
of Christ to that of father, mother, brother, 
sister, lands or houses, then he loves God per- 
fectly, and with all his heart; and God never 
did and never can receive a penitent sinner 
unless he makes this complete surrender and 
sacrifice, and thus performs this "reasonable 
service." Therefore, every one whom God 
receives into his service is pure in heart. Every 
true penitent who presents himself at the sac- 
rificial shrine of God, with " a godly sorrow, 
which worketh repentance unto life,'' mourning 
his previous sinful life, having resolved to 
be Chi'ist's servant for life, is already a pure and 
sanctified man, and for the encouragement of 
such, Jesus left on record one of his pro- 
nounced beatitudes: " Blessed are the pure in 
heart, for they shall see God,'' and "Blessed 
are they who mourn (with this godly sorrow), 
for they shall be comforted." 

Such offei'ings always meet the requisitions 
of God's righteous law, and, as the publican 
who smote on his breast and said: " God, be 



48 The Old Paths. 

merciful to me, a simier,'' with him *' go down 
to their house justified." 

We sum up this part of our subject as fol- 
lows: God receives nothing into his service 
but sanctified purity. Purity in his sight is 
nothing more or less than an honest intention 
of heart to serve and please God in whatever 
a man does. "Whatsoever ye do, do all to 
the glory of God.'^ Such hearts have not only 
all justified believers, but also all truly peni- 
tent sinners. Such was the publican above 
alluded to, and being thus pure they are sanc- 
tified, and being sanctified, God receives them 
into his service, and this act of reception is 
being justified by faith, the result of which is 
"peace with God through our Lord Jesug 
Christ.'^ It is true that the order of these 
conditions are brought out prominently in the 
passage under consideration, but it is in per- 
fect harmony with the subject everywhere 
taught in the Bible. "But ye are washed 
(this purified them); but ye are sanctified (this 
is the condition of being pure) ; but jq are 
justified;" this is the result of being sanctified. 
That the intention of the heart is the highest 



Treatise on Sanctification. 49 

standard of moral purity, is proved by the 
fact that it is the greatest limit to which the 
law or word of God reaches in its estimate or 
measurement of Christian character; whatever 
therefore meets this, must be in the most 
unlimited degree pure in the sight of God. 
^' God searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins." 
*^The word of God is quick and powerful, 
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing 
even to the dividing asunder of the soul and 
spirit, joints and marrow, and is a discerner 
of the thoughts and intents of the hearf 

It is only necessary to make this proposition, 
with the introduction of these texts, in order 
to its vindication. Men may do acts which, in 
themselves, are wrong, but if the motive was 
pure, it entirely changes the character of the 
acts. 

1 (7or., vii, 14: ''For the unbelieving hus- 
band is sanctified by the wife, and the unbe- 
lieving wife is sanctified by the husband, else 
were your children unclean, but now are they 
holy." 

All we have to say upon this passage is, that 
it uses the words " clean, holy, and sanctified," 
4 



50 The Old Paths, 

synonymously, and that the believing husband 
and wife here, as well as all other believers, 
are sanctified. 

2 T^m., ii, 21: *' If a man purge himself 
from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, 
sanctified, and meet for the master^s use, and 
prepared unto every good work/^ 

The condition here, upon which a man is 
pronounced sanctified, is that he first purge 
himself, and therefore sanctification is not the 
operation of purging, but describes the purified 
state after having been purged. Besides, we 
see that this purging, by which a man is 
brought and kept in a sanctified state, is some- 
thing for himself to do, and cannot therefore 
be the changing of his heart or nature, which 
is the work of God only. Mark the expres- 
sion : " If a man purge himself from these,'' etc. 

This is more fully explained in the 19th 
verse: ^' Let every one that nameth the name 
of Christ, depart from all iniquity.'' Those 
who thus abide in Christ are ke^Dt from all 
iniquity, from the evil that is in the world; 
they are clean, and *^ preserve their vessels in 
sanctification and in honor." 



Treatise on Sangtifigation. 51 

J3e5., X, 14: *'For by one offering he hath 
perfected forever them that are sanctified." 

We learn from this passage that sanctifica- 
tion is a perfect state of Christian experience 
and practice. As long, therefore, as Christians 
preserve their vessels (hearts) in sanctification, 
they are perfect, and if they do not again 
become unclean, and therefore unsanctified, 
they are blameless; and according to tlie 
Apostle's prayer, may remain so until the 
*^ coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Here we again see that ^' sanctification" has 
no reference whatever to the processes by which 
a man is made pure or perfect, but describes 
the condition of being thus perfect, neither is 
it applicable to any condition of purity less 
than perfect. 

If a man has a heart divided between God 
and any other object, and so disqualified to 
serve one master, that heart cannot be sancti- 
fied, for Jesus hath only sanctified those that 
are perfect. 

We also learn from this passage that sancti- 
fication admits of no degrees; a man is either 
sanctified wholly — spirit, soul and body is 



52 The Old Paths, 

every whit whole — or he is unclean, and there- 
fore not sanctified at all. 

Having anj^ remains of the carnal mind, any- 
moral defilement or uncleanness, in motive, 
intention or desire, and to be such must be 
in heart, such a heart is not sanctified at all, 
for an unclean thing or being is an unsanctified 
one, and any degree of uncleanness is imper- 
fection, and " God hath perfected only them 
that are sanctified; '^ therefore, to be preserved 
blameless, is to be sanctified, and any deliberate 
sin, and it must be such to be sin at all, either 
in thought, design, intention, motive or action, 
which is its fruit, is uncleanness, and he who 
commits it is unsanctified, for mark: *' He hath 
(only) perfected them that are sanctified/' The 
conclusion is, that if a man is not perfect, that 
is, perfectly pure, he is not sanctified; and as 
the least uncleanness is imperfection, and to 
say such are sanctified, is to use contradiction 
of terms, as much as to say a thing was clean 
when it was partly unclean, purged when it 
was unpurged, that a man may have a heart 
which is pure and impure, clean and unclean, 
holy and unholy at the same time. The fact 



Treatise on Sanctification. 53 

is, if a thing is clean in the sight of God, it is 
perfectly clean; if it is pure, it is perfectly- 
pure; if it is sanctified, it is without spot, and 
perfectly so. Is it not, therefore, evident that 
sanctification, descriptive of a state of purity, 
admits of no degrees? As well talk of a 
motive being pure and impure, an intention 
being righteous and wicked, a desire being 
holy and unholy, a thought being evil and good, 
a resolution being righteous and unrighteous. 

Can a sentiment involving such palpable 
contradictions and absurdities be true ? And 
yet this modern definition of the doctrine of 
sanctification comprehends all these, and so 
many more of equal import, that we might fill 
a book with them; but we go on to add 
strength to our argument, if that be possible, 
for if the truth of God can settle any question, 
it certainly leaves no ground for this modern 
idea of sanctification. We call it modern, 
because, as we have seen, it stands in the 
widest contrast with the sanctification taught 
in the scriptures of truth. 

^^Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and 
brother of James, to them that are sanctified 



54 The Old Paths, 

by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus 
Christ." 

Here again we have the terms " sanctified " 
and "preserved" used synonymously, meaning 
the same thing. God the Father hath sanctified 
those whom the apostle addressed, and Jesus 
Christ preserved them. 

E;ph., V, 25-26: " Even as Christ also loved 
the Church, and gave himself for it, that he 
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing 
of water by the word." 

Here the sanctification is put first; it is not, 
however, the cleansing process. This was "the 
washing of water by the word." Water is 
used to symbolize the blood of Christ. The 
idea is, that the church being thus washed and 
cleansed, Christ sanctifies or preserves it clean. 

1 Peter, iii, 15: " But sanctify the Lord God 
in your hearts." 

Now, if to sanctify means to make clean and 
holy, or to purify, it would prove that men 
should make the Lord God holy and clean, but 
as no such absurdity is taught, therefore the 
word has no such meaning. The idea is, let 
the Lord God have the first seat m your affec- 



Treatise on Sanctification, 55 

tions; let your bodies be made temples of the 
Holy Ghost, and do not defile such temples by 
setting up therein any other gods. "For 
what agreement hath the temple of God with 
idols ? ^^ Let the Lord God be the supreme 
object of your afiections. "Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart." " Thou 
shalt have no other gods before me.'^ Thus 
" sanctify the Lord God in your hearts." 

2 Tim,, ii, 13: "Because God hath from the 
beginning chosen you to salvation through 
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the 
truth." 

Those thus chosen to salvation is explained 
by the following: " He that belie veth shall be 
saved." But they were sanctified before they 
were thus chosen; and secondly, they believed, 
and it was through these conditions that they 
were chosen to salvation; they were true peni- 
tents, and as such their purposes and intentions 
were pure; and this is sanctification, their 
hearts had been purified by the belief of the 
truth; they were then pardoned, justified and 
saved. 

That penitents are pure in heart, seems to us 



56 The Old Paths, 

to admit of no question, except by a misun- 
derstanding of the nature of purity in the 
sight of God, and as required of men. 

Just let the truth in regard to it be con- 
ceded, that it consists in purity or honesty of 
purpose, motive or intention to serve God, as 
manifested in the person of Jesus Christ, cry- 
ing: '' God, be merciful to me, a sinner; " and 
there never was a true penitent whose heart 
did not utter this prayer; this must be what 
it is, '' a single eye," a single mind; for God 
cannot accept a double minded man. ^' He is 
unstable in all his ways." 

We say h^re is the very perfection of 
purity, it is easy to conceive the revealed 
truth, that God does not immediately cast off 
his servants on the commission of crime, but is 
long suffering with them; but that he can 
receive one into his service who does not make 
an unreserved consecration of his whole being, 
whose motives are corrupt, endeavoring to 
deceive God by maintaining a divided heart 
between him and the world, is utterly inad-. 
missible. 

Was there ever an hour in the history of 



Treatise on Sanctification. 57 

the great apostle of the Gentiles more honest 
and characterized by purer motives, purposes 
and intentions, than that when he exclaimed: 
"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? '^ 

Was not that full consecration, expressed by 
Peter on his own behalf and that of his fellow 
apostles, and referred to the hour when they 
first became Christ's disciples: ^'What shall 
we have, therefore, who have left all and fol- 
lowed thee? " 



58 The Old Paths. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE OLD TESTAmXT MAXIXG OF SAXCTIFICATION. 

Xehe^iiah, xii, 47: "And they sanctified holy 
things unto the Levites, and the priests sancti- 
fied them unto the children of Aaron." 

We see by this passage that to sanctity does 
not mean to make things holj^, but to irreserve 
holy things for the use of the priests in the 
service of the Temple. 

2 C%n, xxxi, 18: "And to the genealogy of 
their little ones, their wives, their sons, and 
their daughters, through all the congregation; 
for in their set office they sanctified themselves 
in holiness." 

The idea is, that the sons of Aaron preserved 
themselves pure and holy by adherence to the 
various washings required of them by the law; 
their sanctification did not make them holy, 
but was itself holiness after being washed. 

Lev., xi, 44: " For I am the Lord your God, 
ye shall therefore sanctif}^ yourselves and ye 
shall be holy, for I am holy; neither shall ye 



Treatise on Sanctification. 59 

defile yourselves with any manner of creeping 
thing that creepeth upon the earth." 

According to this passage, also, we see that 
sanctification does not mean to make men pure 
and holy from all defilement of heart, which 
only God can do, but it is something enjoined 
on themselves. Keep yourselves from all 
defilement, and ye shall be in a condition of 
sanctification and holiness. 

IscL^ V, 16: " But the Lord of hosts shall be 
exalted in judgment, and God that is holy 
shall be sanctified in righteousness." 

We just considered a passage declaring 
that God should be sanctified in holiness, and 
here he is to be sanctified in righteous judg- 
ment, proving conclusively that sanctification 
does not mean to cleanse from unrighteousness, 
because it is the righteous God himself who is 
here to be sanctified in righteousness. 

Chapter viii, 13, contains the same sentiment: 
"Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and let 
him be j^our fear, and let him be your dread." 

The idea is, that men may sanctify the Lord 
of hosts himself, by "keeping the fear of the 
Lord always before their eyes," and even a 



go The Old Paths. 

dread of offending him, by transgressing his 
laws, or to hold God as the supreme object of 
affection. 

This is parallel to the passage: " Sanctify 
the Lord God in your hearts." God has made 
the Christianas heart a temple of the Holy 
Ghost, and if he keeps it undefiled by refrain- 
ing from the commission of willful sin, and 
which can only be the result of impure hearts, 
because '' a sweet fountain cannot send forth 
bitter water; " and he who thus " defiles the 
temple of God (and does not repent), him wilt 
God destroy." But for the encouragement of 
such, so that they may not be driven to des- 
pair as Judas was, it is written: "• If any man 
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the righteous." 

Deut, V, 12: ^'Keep the Sabbath day to 
sanctify it, as the Lord God hath commanded 
thee," and ^'Remember the Sabbath day to 
keep it holy." 

Here again is positive proof that to sanctify 
does not mean to make pure or holy. God 
made the Sabbath day holy, and if every man 
on earth should desecrate it, it would be just 



Treatise on Sanctification. gj 

as holy as ever; but if men keep the Sabbath 
■ day holy, which they do by not violating its 
laws, then they sanctify it; hence its sanctifi- 
cation does not mean to make it holy, for it is 
eternally such, but consists in keeping it holy. 
We might continue to quote similar passages 
almost indefinitely in defence of our position, 
]but if any are so blinded and bigoted as to 
still maintain the human opinion of the mean- 
ing of this word, we doubt if they would 
believe " if one rose from the dead; " and we 
would simply remind such that their conten- 
tion is not with us, but with the author of the 
Bible. 

Indeed, there is not one text containing the 
word '^ sanctification," or any of its derivatives, 
which teaches the idea that it means to cleanse, 
purify, make holy or righteous; and therefore 
the doctrine of sanctification signifies not to 
make pure, holy or righteous, but to keep or 
preserve that which is already pure, holy and 
righteous in such a state. It teaches that every 
one who has become a convert to Christianity, 
or is born again, and is thus made pure from 
all the defilement of sin, is from that moment 



62 ^^^ Old Paths, 

in a state of sanctification; and in fact he was 
such from the moment he penitently surren- 
dered himself into the hands of God, in heart 
resolved to be his servant during life; and 
such are all kept and preserved in a state of 
sanctification, and would be '' blameless unto 
the coming of our Lord Jesns Christ,'' unless 
thev ao'ain committed deliberate trans egression, 
and are thus again defiled by sin, and hence 
lose their sanctification. 

With regard to this character, we have the 
following passage, and with which we close the 
direct investio'ation of sanctification: 

Heh,^ X, 29: "Of how much sorer punish- 
ment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy 
who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, 
and hath counted the blood of the covenant, 
wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, 
and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace." 

The punishment such apostacy merits is here 
contrasted by what is said in the previous 
verse: "He that despised Moses' law, died 
without mercy, under two or three witnesses." 

The conclusion from this seems to be, that 
he Avho accounts the blood of Jesus, which had 



Treatise on Sanctification, 63 

once purified him, an unholy thing, and thus 
despised the very spirit of grace, " the precious 
blood of Christ,'^ the kindest and most merci- 
ful gift of God to man, we ask if such, under 
the law of Moses (the type), died without 
mercy, being the most dreadful punishment 
which could have been inflicted in the present 
life ? Who can comprehend the magnitude of 
that which such are. worthy — not only shall 
they die without mercy, but remain subjects 
of merciless ruin forever. 

This dreadful punishment, which the apostle 
does not attempt to describe, from which fact 
we may infer not only that it is undescribable, 
but involves the idea that those are only 
worthy of it who fall from this highest state 
of purity and gracious favor with God, which 
is sanctification. Of course, this is on the sup- 
position that they remain unrepentant apostates 
till death. 

We ask if there is not here startling truth 
for the contemplation of those who have so 
far left their first love, the jDurity of motives 
and intentions which then characterized their 
spirit, words and actions, but who can now do 



64 2^'^^ Old Paths. 

things which they know the word of God for- 
bids, and from which they would once have 
shrunk as from the fangs of a deadly serpent. 
•• Remember, therefore, from whence thou art 
fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or I 
(the Alpha and Omega) will come unto thee 
quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out 
of his place, except thou repent." 

We have now seen that although some pass- 
ages employ the word '' sanctification " simply 
descriptive of being pure, without that of the 
purifying process, or the agency used, as water 
or blood; yet the word is not in a single 
instance, of the hundreds the Bible contains, 
used synonj-mous with the purgation or 
cleansing principle. For instance, it is nowhere 
used thus: Being cleansed, purified or washed 
by sanctification. 

It sometimes stands as a single declaration: 
*'I, the Lord, do sanctify them," and means I, 
the Lord, doth keep them clean, as Jesus said 
in reference to himself: ''I sanctify myself," 
I keep myself pure. 

The doctrine may be summed up as fol- 
lows: 



Treatise on Sanctification. 55 

God receives nothing, or no being into his 
service, which is in anywise unclean. 

Whatever and whoever remains in his ser- 
vice without fault or reproof, are in a state of 
sanctification. 

A sanctified man may become again unclean 
by ceasing to hold God as the supreme object 
of his affections, and thus ceasing to obey the 
injunction: "Abide in me." 

The least deviation from this principle, which 
involves a knowing wrong, even a wish or 
desire to do it, whether accomplished or not, 
sanctification is lost, not in part, but wholly. 

A sin of omission produces the same result. 
"He that knoweth his Master^s will, and doeth 
it not, shall be beaten with many stripes." 
" Every branch in me that beareth not fruit 
(ceaseth to bear fruit), he taketh away." (This 
is apostacy.) "And every branch in me that 
beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring 
forth more fruit." 

As we have already shown, the idea is 

clearly taught in the Bible that a heart filled 

with " godly sorrow, which worketh repentance 

unto life," is pronounced "blessed," because 

5 



66 ^^^ Old Paths. 

of its '^ hungering and thirsting after righteous- 
ness; " *' mourning," because of the burden of 
its transgression, and looking for the blessing, 
such hearts have a right to claim: *' Blessed 
are they that mourn, for they shall be com- 
forted," or laboring under these pure thoughts, 
desires and purposes, hoping for pardon, claims 
that other precious promise: '^Blessed are the 
pure in heart, for they shall see God." Such 
hearts are already sanctified, because pure in 
thought, purpose and desire, as he who 
exclaimed: " God, be merciful to me, a sin- 
ner; " or him who said: "Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do ? " who, though only in a 
state of penitential sorrow, from that yqvj 
moment were in Christ, from which point no 
man could ever perish, and therefore began to 
bear fruit; yet God now heard the culprit's 
prayer, pardoned his sins, and thus '' purged 
the branch, that it might bring forth more 
fruit." 

That the condition of all those whom God 
receives as his penitent and believing children 
is not that of the most perfect purity, there is 
not an intimation in the whole Bible, not a 



Treatise on Sanctification. g7 

single passage that they were ever held in anjr 
other light. 

Is it for a moment to be supposed that such 
are still in a degree unrighteous in heart, when 
in the thousands of instances recorded in the 
Bible, where God received penitents as his 
children, implying their conversion, whether 
expressed or not, that in not one is it said, or 
even intimated, that they were only in *part 
clean, and therefore partly sanctified and partly 
unsanctified ? 

As though God hath thus expressed himself : 
** I receive you, and command you to love me 
with all your heart, but you have a bad heart, 
it loves other gods as well as me/^ 

I have said: "In the day thou seekest me 
with all thine heart, I will be found of thee.'^ 
But though you now comply with the condi- 
tion, yet I will only receive and purify a part 
of your heart; I will leave a part of it still 
unwashed and unholy; to cleanse the other 
part, you must seek me another day with all 
your heart, and I will be found of you a second 
time. 

I receive you and I destroy part of your 



68 The Old Paths. 

carnal mind, but not all, and that which I leave 
is still at enemity against me; it is not subject 
to my law, neither indeed can be, neither can 
you take away the defilement, this is my work 
alone; but I don^t destroy all the enmity of 
your hearts against me now; I will be content 
if a part of your carnal mind and will remains 
unsubjugated to mine; you may thus have your 
hearts divided between myself and mammon; 
ril leave you so that you can serve two mas- 
ters, each requiring opposite service, and not- 
withstanding this is the filthy condition of your 
heart, yet it is the heart of a justified believer. 
You are just in my sight, though you do not 
love me with all your heart, and thus you live 
in the open and known violation of my greatest 
commandment: " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart." 

Of a doctrine thus legitimatelj^ carried out, 
we can only say, if it was not the result of 
ignorance, it is blasphemous in the extreme. 

Let us here inquire at what period of Chris- 
tian experience does the Bible place the highest 
standard of purity ? 

In answering this question, we will introduce 



Treatise on Sanctification. 69 

one passage, whicji is so full and to the point, 
that it settles the question. 

Rev,, ii: "Unto the angel of the Church of 
Ephesus write, I know thy works and thy 
patience, and how thou canst not bear them 
which are evil; and thou hast tried them which 
say they are apostles, and are not, and hast 
found them to be liars, and hast borne, and 
hast patience, and for my name's sake hast 
labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless, I 
have somewhat against thee, because thou hast 
left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from 
whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the 
first works; or else I will come unto thee 
quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out 
of his place, except thou repent." 

We are here furnished with Christ's standard 
of Christian love, and we see that it must be at 
conversion — *' the first love." Of this church 
he knew their works, labor and patience, and 
with these he had no fault to find; they had 
not even once fainted. 

And we should like to know of how many 
Christians of the present day this can be said, 
including those who suppose and profess them- 



70 The Old Paths. 

selves to be more holy than^ other men ? By 
this reference, we do not wish to be understood 
as conceding the correctness of such profession, 
but how many, even of these, who do not grow 
languid and get out of patience in their labor? 
Do they always bear hardness as good soldiers 
of Jesus Christ ? Does Christ know that they 
have not fainted in the exercise of this greatest 
of the Christian graces, especially if their theory 
of the second blessing is attacked ? Do they 
exhibit the loving disposition of Christ toward 
such as questioned the truth of his doctrines ? 
On the other hand, do they not endeavor to 
crush out the influence of all who believe them 
in error, and sometimes even to persecution ? 
Are they no compromisers with false teachers 
when standing high in authority, claiming even 
to be apostles ? Have they tried them, and 
found them to have been liars, in preaching for 
doctrines '^ the commandments of men,'' incul- 
cating such in preference to the truth of God ? 
Do they not substitute the doctrines of men 
for those of God, as the Mcolaitans did, *^ which 
thing God hated, and which thing also these 
Ephesian Christians hated ? Now what was the 



Treatise on Sanctification, 7 1 

grounds of complaint Christ brought against 
them ? 

Was it that they had not advanced in purity 
since their conversion ? Not at all. 

Was it that they had not been purified from 
any remains of the carnal mind which God 
left in their hearts at their conversion ? Not 
at all. 

Was it that they had not seen and mourned 
over the depravity of their nature, which Christ 
had failed to destroy when he gave them their 
jiew birth, and made them new creatures in 
Christ Jesus ? Not a word of it. 

Was it that they had never loved God with 
all their heart, but with a part only ? Not at 
all. 

Was it that Jesus had left them when they 
were converted with a filthy spirit ? Not at 
all. 

Was it that they had not become strong and 
consistent Christians, who had never taken any 
fainting spells in any winter or summer, or who 
had made trouble in the church by accusing 
some pretenders as no apostles,, or as false ones ? 
Not at all. 



72 The Old Paths. 

Was it that they had not experienced a 
second blessing or conversion, which enabled 
them to love God more than they were capable 
of doing when he first received them as his 
children ? No, not this. 

Was it that they had not arrived at some 
standard of holiness and perfect purity of 
heart, higher than they enjoyed when first con- 
verted ? Not at all. 

No such intimation is either expressed or 
implied, but quite the reverse; which was that 
they had fallen from that high standard. **I 
have somewhat against thee because thou hast 
left thy first love,^^ 

This must, therefore, have been perfect love, 
or Christ reared an imperfect standard, to 
which he bade them seek. 

It must be remembered that this message 
was not addressed to a single individual, but 
to a whole church, and that church selected 
from among all the others of Asia, because it 
was in the most appropriate spiritual condition, 
to map out, or symbolize a whole period of 
the church in the gospel dispensation. And 
as its standard of purity has never changed, it 



Treatise on Sanctificatiojv. 73 

is that, therefore, by which the universal church 
in all ages is to be tested. 

If such is the Christian character of those 
who had left their first love, and who, except 
they repented, and did their first works over 
again, would have their candlestick removed 
out of his place, or more literally as Jesus has 
it: "If the light in you become darkness, how 
great is that darkness/' Is it not clear that 
their danger grew out of having wandered away 
from that pure, unblemished and sinless stand- 
ard in which their hearts were when Christ 
first received them ? 

To assume he had fixed the standard of 
perfect love at death, or anywhere else between 
conversion and that event, and that its attain- 
ment was so important and prominent as to be 
an equal, if not a superior experience to the 
first, preceded as in the first by conviction and 
repentance, and' not to have pointed these 
Christians to it, as the object of their future 
effort, but instead to have pointed them to that 
love they had at the first, and from which they 
had fallen, is not only to charge God with folly 
and perversion, but to j:irrogantly assume to 



74 The Old Paths. 

know better than Christ himself, as to what 
constitutes perfect love and purity. It is true, 
these saints were called to a second repentance 
and experience, but this was to retrace their 
wandering and sinful steps, to come back and 
do the first works over again, to return to their 
first love, from whence they had fallen, and 
who could not be saved only on this condition. 

Their progress in purity, just as we appre- 
hend that of all others to be, consisted in 
coming back to that state of heart which Jesus 
purified, " swept and garnished,^^ when he first 
received them. 

It must also be remembered that those who 
contend for this doctrine of a second conver- 
sion, additional to the first, make a concession 
which virtually gives up the whole ground. 

This is that Christians when first converted, 
never feel anything in their heart but pure love 
toward God and man, and it is not until a 
period afterward, longer or shorter, as the case 
may be, that they find other things in their 
heart, such as love of the world, carnal mind- 
edness, ^'a love for all evil," as John Wesley 
expresses it. 



Treatise on Sanctification. 75 

They, therefore, erroneously conclude that 
this was the state of their hearts which Christ 
had not entirely changed at conversion, instead 
of referring it as Christ does here to the true 
cause, namely, that they had "• left their first 
love.'^^ 

These Ephesian Christians, although dan- 
gerously backslidden in heart, and had, there- 
fore, ceased to be justified in the sight of 
God, were vastly better, because 'Hhey could 
not bear that which was evil,'' than those carnal 
minded Christians, who, as Mr. Wesley says, 
are in love with all evil, and yet are justified 
believers, and as such are sure of heaven. 
Such repugnance of teaching between Christ 
and man, is so suggestive that the most igno- 
rant and bigoted cannot but perceive it. 

In order to prove that the first love is not 
pure and perfect, it would be necessary that 
at the moment of the conversion of every 
sinner, they should feel or experience a carnal 
mindedness, which is a feeling of enmity 
against God, of insubjection to his law. 

But, even if this were the fact, which all 
parties agree is not the case in a single instance, 



76 ^-^^ Old Pates. 

it would not prove the doctrine that God leaves 
hearts in such a state at conversion true, because 
it is not taught in the Bible. 

So far from this beino^ the feelino^ of new 
born souls, their expression is: 

O! that the world might taste and see 

The riches of his grace, 
The arms of love that compass me, 
Would all mankind embrace 

In the very nature of love, which is a feel- 
ing, there can be no others in opposition to it 
in the heart at the same time, and the indi- 
vidual not know it; the idea is as absurd as to 
say a feeling is not a feeling. 

But we shall leave this feature of the subject 
for subsequent investigation. 



Treatise on Sanctification, 77 



CHAPTER IV. 

CONYERSION PERFECT PURITY. 

We are aware that it is said: ** Leaving the 
principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go 
on unto perfection/^ Analagous to this is the 
passage: ^' Grow in grace, and in the knowledge 
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." These 
passages are in the most perfect harmony with 
the message of Christ's angel to the Ephesian 
Church. The injunction to every newly con- 
verted soul, is perpetual: '* Go on, gather 
with Christ; bring forth fruit." ^'Be changed 
from glory into glory, even as by the spirit of 
the Lord; grow more and more perfect in 
Christian prmciple, in discriminating know- 
ledge. Go on from grace to grace, from 
strength to strength, from weak to strong 
faith, but this is not to be done by leaving 
your first love, but by abounding in love more 
and more." They love Christ most who con- 
tinue to hold fast whereunto they have attained, 
and press forward; such growth is continual. 



78 The Old Paths. 

and the expansion of heart to love God is with- 
out limitation, both in time and eternity. The 
great commandment is of binding force on all 
the inhabitants of the present and the immortal 
world: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and 
with all thy mind, and with all thy strength, 
and thy neighbor as thyself." This everj^ one 
does when God first receives them as his chil- 
dren, and if they do not backslide, will con- 
tinue thus to love him with the strength of 
all these capacities, which will continue to 
expand and increase in power through all the 
ages of eternity, and yet it is only with all 
the heart, from first to last, and during all 
the cycles of immortality, it is only perfect 
love, as it was when the soul was first converted 
and adopted into Christ's family. Here is his 
standard. Would to God the church might 
even now comply with the solemn admonition, 
return to thy first love; whoever of thy chil- 
dren have wandered from this, repent and do 
the first works, lest I remove thy candlestick, 
and thou be left involved in eternal darkness. 
The increase of Christian love, and the 



Treatise ok Sanctificatiox. 79 

development of Christian character, however, 
must not be confounded with an increase of 
purity or moral perfection, because that would 
argue that the immortal saints would increase 
in purity, because they increase in knowledge 
and capacity to love God more and more. 

In this connection we propose to show that 
when God does anything spiritually for a man, 
he is not limited by the conceptions or intelli- 
gence of the man, but does everything that he 
needs. Or, that when a man is converted, he 
is made perfectly pure in heart — perfectly 
clean — and is made perfect in love, because it 
is the demand of his nature. 

2 (7or., V, xvii: ^'Therefore, if any man be 
in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature. Old 
things are passed away; behold, all things are 
become new.^' This passage explains what is 
meant by being in Christ, and corresponds 
with what Jesus said of such: ^^Now, ye are 
clean through the word which I have spoken 
unto 3^ou; abide in me, and ye shall bring forth 
much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples.". The 
expressions "new creature,'' "new creation,'' 
*' created anew in Christ Jesus," implies that 



80 The Old Paths. 

there had been an old creation, in regard to 
which we would ask, first, if God created 
anything physically imperfect; and secondly, 
morally. 

We have been surprised, and indeed ashamed, 
to hear men, and that, too, in public addresses 
and sermons, confound God's six days' work 
of creation with the progress of perfection, 
having considered it so superficially that the 
fact was not perceived that each day's work was 
most perfect in itself, and by its author pro- 
nounced " very good," which, had there been 
the least imperfection, would not have been 
true. Light, for instance, was the first day's 
work. On the supposition of such philosophy 
it would have been only twilight or gloom; 
but God " saw the light, that it was good." 

The second day's work was the firmament or 
atmosphere, and was this imperfect ? Was it 
not composed of the various gases, blended in 
the exact proportions to meet the demands and 
sustain animal and vegetable life ? Was there 
any imperfection here displayed ? 

The third day's work was the earth or dry 
land, and was there imperfection in its con- 



Treatise on Sanctifigation. ^\ 

struction ? Was it not perfectly adapted with 
its grand chemical composition to meet the 
demands of the vast variety of earth^s vegeta- 
tion? This, too, God pronounced '' very good.'' 

The fourth day's work was that of the sun, 
moon and stars (planets of the solar system). 
Are we to be told that there is imperfection in 
the organization, suspension and revolution 
of these grand bodies ? Had there been in the 
least degree, the whole system, long ere this, 
would have been hurled into universal ruin. 
A man, to advance such an idea, must suppose 
his auditors either fools or children. 

The fifth day's work was the fowls of the air 
and the fishes of the sea, and were these not per- 
fect ? Have they ever grown more so ? Has 
a single species ever lost its identity or physi- 
cal organization by being merged in another ? 
All the skeptical philosophy of the world have 
never been able to discover such a phenomenon. 

The sixth day's work was all living crea- 
tures, with man at their head, and was there 
any defect manifested here ? Man was made 
a man, '' formed in the image of his Creator." 
Closing up this grand account of the stupend- 
3 



82 The Old Paths. 

ous work of creation, and it is the only philo- 
sophical one ever given to the world, God 
thus pronounces its workmanship: *'And God 
saw everything that he had made, and behold, 
it was very good; and the evening and the 
morning were the sixth day." 

For a more extended investigation of the 
philosophy of the Mosaic account of creation, 
see my large work, '^ The Philosophy of God 
and the World.'^ 

That the physical world was created perfect 
at first — and indeed it is nothing but a slander 
on the Creator to charge him with even the 
possibility of creating a thing imperfect — shuts 
us up to the conclusion, that the act of the 
recreation of man's moral nature is also one of 
the greatest perfection. Morally, as well as 
physically, ^'God made man upright," but he 
has sought out many inventions, by which tha^ 
moral rectitude has become sadly defaced. 

The question now is, did God create man 
originallj^ with a carnal mind, which was 
enmity against himself in any degree ? This 
is Paul's definition of the nature of the carnal 
mind. Was he in any way unholy ? Was his 



Treatise on Sanctificatiojst. 33 

moral nature not made in the image of God, 
which Paul explains to be ^' righteousness and 
true holiness ? " But from this state of puritj' 
he fell. Now, through the great plan of God 
in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, 
he comes to sinners and creates them anew in 
Christ Jesus; and is it possible he leaves a part 
of that old rebellious nature against himself 
and his government — some of the same old 
propensities to love sin and hate holiness, a 
remnant of the carnal mind ? Does he leave 
in the heart of his saints a part of the old man 
Adam with his deeds ? No; mark the decla- 
ration: ''Therefore, if any man (and of course 
all who are) be in Christ Jesus, he is a new 
areature.^^ Could this be true if he was only 
in part neio and part old ? He had borne the 
fallen, moral image of the first Adam, which 
was unrighteousness and sin; he now bears the 
image of the second Adam, ''the Lord from 
heaven," which is righteousness and true holi- 
ness. 

The change was so great and complete, 
through which the sinner passed when God 
received him, that when the apostle saw, and 



84 The Old Paths. 

was about to describe it, he exclaimed in aston- 
ishment: *^ Behold! old things are passed 
away, and all things are become new.^'' 

If this language does not express a complete 
moral transformation, we should like to know 
what words could. 

This change does not comprehend the mental 
or physical nature, neither of which are mate- 
rially changed by this new creation. The all 
things, therefore, must relate to the moral 
nature, or the feelings of the heart, which, 
indeed, is the heart itself, and of course, indi- 
cates a perfect change. This, therefore, is the 
condition of the heart, the recreative power of 
God accomplishes through Jesus Chi^ist. for 
every sinner whom he receives. This new crea- 
tion is precisely the same thing as the new bh^th. 
Let us see, therefore, in what light the Bible 
represents those who are " born again.'' 

In regard to the time when the new birth 
takes place, and that it is at conversion, there 
is but one opinion. If we find that its subjects 
are represented as being only in part cleansed 
from sin and unrighteousness, and have hearts 
still left in an imperfect state, loving God only 



Treatise on Sanctiftcation. 35 

with a part of the heart, divided in its attach- 
ments between God and other objects, then we 
must admit that the advocates of the second 
blessing doctrine may be correct, but if the 
contrary be found to be the truth, then are 
they in error. 

1 John^ i, 4: '^That which was from the 
beginning, which we have heard, which we have 
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, 
and our hands have handled, of the Word of 
life, for the life was manifested, and we have 
seen it, and bear witness unto you of that eter- 
nal life which was with the Father, and was 
manifested unto us; that which we have seen 
and heard declare we unto you, that ye also 
may have fellowship with us; and truly our 
fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son 
Jesus Christ, and these things write we unto 
you, that your joy may be full." 

The condition here upon which those thus 
addressed were to have fellowship with the 
Father and the Son, and that their joy might 
thus be full, was that Jesus Christ had been 
manifested, and they were witnesses of the 



g6 The Old Paths. 

truth that he was the ''Word of life," havmg 
seen, heard and handled him. 

This is further explained in the second chap- 
ter, 24, 25: "Let that, therefore, abide in you 
which ye have heard from the beginning. If 
that which ye have heard from the beginning 
shall remain in you, ye shall continue in the 
Son and in the Father, and this is the promise 
which he hath promised us, even eternal life." 
The beginning, to which reference is here made, 
was the time when Jesus had said unto them, 
" Now ye are clean through the word which I 
have spoken unto you, abide in me. K ye 
abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall 
ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto 
you." We here learn that it was at the begin- 
ning, or the time when Jesus first called these 
disciples, and they " left all and followed him," 
that they were engrafted into him as the branch 
is in the vine. That they were then pronounced 
clean by Jesus himself, and while in this con- 
dition their faith was perfect, so that whatsoever 
they asked, they received. 

To show that there was no higher state of 
purity, or no more perfect change of moral 



Treatise on Sanctification. g7 

nature to which they might attain than that 
which they had from the beginning, the apostle 
says: "If that which ye have heard from the 
beginning shall remain in yon, ye also shall 
continue in' the Father and in the Son/^ And 
while they thus continue to abide in Christ, 
they were not onlyr clean, but their joy was 
full, and had uninterrupted fellowship with the 
Father and the Son. If there is any greater 
moral assimilation to God and Christ, in earth 
or heaven, in time or eternity, than this, we 
should like to see it described; and this was 
the state of heart enjoyed by the disciples and 
those whom the apostle addressed, when they 
were first converted; what they were " from 
the beginning." 

The seventh verse of this chapter shows, 
also, that those who had this fellowship were 
entirely cleansed from sin: " But if we walk in 
the light, as he is in the light, we have fellow- 
ship one with another, and the blood of Jesus 
Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 

Verses 5, 6, show more fully what this walk- 
ing in the light means: '^This, then, is the 
message which we have heard of him, and 



88 The Old Paths. 

declare unto you that God is light, and in him 
is no darkness at all; if we say we have fel- 
lowship with him, and walk in darkness, we 
lie, and do not the truth.'^ 

From this we learn that those who say they 
have this fellowship, and walk in darkness, are 
not of the truth, but are liars, and are classed 
among those who were never in the light, or 
in whom the light had become darkness; and 
Jesus asks: "How great is that darkness?" 
And the destination of all liars is to have their 
"portion in the lake which burneth with lire 
and brimstone, which is the second death." 

In contrast to such are those who continue 
to walk in the li2:ht from the time of their 
conversion, which introduces them into Christ 
Jesus, the result of which is " the blood of 
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth them from all 
sin," whatever that means. But if they cease 
to have this fellowship, or to abide in Christ, 
or leave their first love, they become again 
involved in darkness, and are ranked among 
all liars, who, if they do not repent and do the 
first works over again, cannot be saved. As 
to whether a man walks in this light, we have 



Treatise on Sanctification, 89 

the following tests, verses 8-11: ''Again, a new 
commandment I write unto you, which thing 
is true in him and in you, because the darkness 
is passed and the true light now shineth; he 
that saith he is in the light, and hateth his 
brother, is in darkness even until now; he that 
loveth his brother abideth in the light, and 
there is none occasion of stumbling in him, but 
he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and 
walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither 
he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded 
his eyes.'^ The test here, as to whether a man 
is in the light, and therefore that the '' blood 
of Jesus Christ cleanseth him from all sin," is 
the love or hatred of his brother. 

We suppose the existence of this love or 
hate is outside of any other consideration, o\Ay 
is the man a Christian. If he is, and I am 
one, I will love him. It is the result of the 
new nature, and therefore, in this higher life, 
it is natural thus to love. If a man loves 
Christ, he must love every one who bears his 
likeness. John ogives us the reason: "Because 
he that loveth him that begat, loveth him also 
that is begotten of him." 



90 The Old Paths. 

On the part of such, it requires uo effort to 
love each other. If a lover of Jesus, when 
first converted, and before becomino^ contami- 
nated by prejudices, bigotry and sin, which 
requires education from some source other than 
from the great teacher, whose lessons are 
meekness and lowliness of heart, sees the 
image of his master in the character and spirit 
of another, he loves him, no matter what else 
he is, has or has not. So is it on the other 
hand, if a man is not a Christian, and does not 
abide in Christ, he as naturally hates the man, 
and has no heartfelt fellowship with him in 
whom he sees the imasfe of Jesus reflected. It 
is those, therefore, who are in the light, who 
are cleansed from all sin, of whom the apostle 
goes on to say: ''Their sins are forgiven,'^ 
" They have overcome the wicked one," " He 
toucheth them not,'^ " They are strong," ^' They 
had overcome the world," " The word of God 
abided in them," " They had an unction from 
the Holy One." To them he says: " Ye know 
the truth, the anointing which ye have received 
of him abideth in jom, and ye need not that 
any man teach you: but as the anointing 



Treatise on Sanctification. ^\ 

teacheth you all things, and is the truth (mark 
this anointing, is the truth) ^ and is no lie, and 
even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in 
him; whosoever abideth in him sinneth not.'' 

The whole force of this instruction, being 
the anointing, is comprehended in the sentence: 
^*Ye shall abide in him.'' Paul expresses it 
thus: *'As ye have received Christ Jesus the 
Lord, so walk ye in him." This translation, 
therefore, from the kingdom of darkness into 
that of his (God's) dear Son, is the highest and 
most perfect state of Christianity, which can 
be enjoyed in the present world. If they con- 
tinued to abide in Christ, and walk in him, as 
they had received him, they would remain 
through life pure and holy. 

We have already seen that those who have 
been born again are declared to be in a state 
of sinless perfection. " He that is born of God 
doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in 
him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of 
God." The idea is, there can be no willful sin 
unless the heart is unholy, because it must 
originate in the heart. 



92 The Old Paths. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE CONDITION OF PURITY NOT INTELLIGENCE. 

The assumption, that in the bestowment of 
blessings, God is limited by our conceptions 
and faith, that is the degree of faith, we believe 
also to be a palpable error. 

Those who imbibe this error, draw such a 
discriminating line between the pardon of sin 
and the purification of the heart, that the one 
may be done, and not the other; a man may 
have his sins pardoned, and his heart still left 
impure and unholy, in part or wholly. Accord- 
ing to this theory, it is indispensably necessary 
that a sinner should be intelligent to a degree 
that enables him to clearly discern between sin 
and its effects upon his moral nature, to draw 
the metaphysical line so clearly and definitely 
in his own mind, that his faith can take hold 
of one or the other at once, but not both, that 
each must be sought as a distinct thing; after 
an interval between, durino; which such intel- 
lectual progress must be made as would enable 



Treatise on Sanctification. 93 

him to fully conceive of this distinction, so that 
he can accommodate himself to this nice meta- 
physical point in the scheme of God to save 
sinners. By the way, it should be remarked 
that this peculiar feature of God^s plan is only 
understood by the Methodist church. It was 
discovered by Mr. Wesley about a hundred 
years ago; was never taught by Christ or the 
apostles, nor for sixteen hundred years of 
the Christian dispensation; and as no one can be 
made holy without an appreciable understand- 
ing of this modern discovery, therefore there 
are none holy only Methodists, and only those 
among them who are able to master this mys- 
terious peculiarity of perception. 

If there were no other arguments in oppo- 
sition to this error, that it makes intelligence 
the condition of holiness would forever dis- 
prove it. For instance, a man feels as an undone 
sinner his need of Christ as his Saviour, but 
his intelligence or mental conceptions are not 
at all equal to the task of enabling him to dis- 
tinguish between the nature of actual trangres- 
sion and the depravity of heart which led him 
into its commission. He does not comprehend 



94 The Old Paths, 

the metaphysics involved in the nature and 
degree of the carnal mind, and its relation to 
his criminality, he does not understand the 
difference between what he wants God to do 
for Mm and in liim^ as it is Methodistically 
defined, but naturally supposes that if anything 
is done in him^ it is done for liim^ because his 
internal nature is a considerable part of him- 
self. He simply sees and feels himself to be 
a sinner; that his whole life has been but one 
continual offence ao'ainst God. 

Now, according to this theory, such a man 
can only be pardoned; he understands enough 
to see and feel that it is his guilt and merited 
condemnation he fears, and from which he 
prays to be relieved. -'God, be merciful to 
me, a sinner,'' is the spontaneous cry of his 
heart. And because he had no idea, or thought, 
or faith, in regard to the depravity of his 
nature as a separate thing from his being a 
sinner, therefore God could do nothing towards 
cleansing his nature. 

We are aware that it is conceded by the 
advocates of this theory that God always does 
cleanse the nature of those he pardons, in part, 



Treatise on Sanctification. 95 

at the same time. But this very concession 
contradicts the theory and virtually abandons 
it, for if God can and does cleanse the nature 
of a man in part when he pardons him, who 
had no such distinct, conviction or faith in 
regard to the unholiness of his nature, then he 
can and will, upon the same principle, cleanse 
such a heart entirely, without having any such 
discriminating faith or ideas in regard to it. 
We say it admits the whole ground for which 
we contend, or else admits a palpable contra- 
diction in its theory. Mark, it says: God can 
only give what our intelligent faith compre- 
hends when we ask, that if we ask for pardon, 
having only guilt in our conception and faith, 
and no distinct idea of depravity, God can oiAy 
pardon us, and cannot cleanse away any of the 
depravity of our heart. Here is an ignorant 
sinner, utterly inadequate to any such mental 
discrimination, who prays only for pardon, and 
yet God not only pardons him, but, in part, 
cleanses his depraved nature; and yet to cleanse 
it wholly at the same time, he cannot or does 
not. 

We can only do justice to such a contradic- 



96 The Old Paths. 

tory theory by expressing it in the old phrase- 
ology: '* God can, and he can't; he will, and 
he won't.'' 

This theory questions the grand principle, 
that the salvation of the gospel is adapted to 
meet the wants and the capacities of the whole 
race, without regard to mental endowment or 
intellectual attainments. 

If a man is so far removed above blank 
idiocy as to be able to discern between right 
and wrong, and that to any degree, Christ's 
great scheme to save him from sin, in any 
and all its features, and to immortalize him 
in his eternal kingdom, meets his necessities, 
and accomplishes the great work. But the 
theory making it necessary that a degree of 
mental capacity shall be possessed, enabling a 
man to discriminate between the de^'ree of the 
carnal mind a Christian may have, and j^et be 
one, and whether it only resides in the heart as 
a peaceful tenant, or reigns, and if so, to what 
extent; whether it is conceived of as a bemg 
(the being of sin, as Mr. Wesley calls it), and 
whether God could consistently chain him in 
the heart, making him harmless for evil, but 



Treatise on Sanctification, 97 

had no power to cast him out of a place which 
he desired with infinite solicitude as his own 
residence, is simply absurd. Every man must 
see that the metaphysics involved in these ques- 
tions cannot be comprehended by thousands 
of human minds, both adults and children sin- 
ners, all of whom are therefore cut off from 
the possibility of being saved from " the carnal 
mind, which is enmity against God," and espe- 
cially that God^s power thus to save is limited 
by the ignorance of the sinner. If God 
should reprove those who advocate this theory, 
it would be: ** Ye have limited the Holy One 
of Israel." 

We have now seen clearly the idea that God 
is limited in the bestowment of his gifts of 
mercy and grace to mankind, at least as it 
respects the cleansing of the human heart from 
sin, is unphilosophical, and we shall now pro- 
ceed to show that it is in wide contrast to the 
positive teachings of Scripture. 

E^ph^ iii, 20: ** Now unto him that is able to 

do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or 

think, according to the power which worketh 

in us." We are here presented with a power 

7 



98 The Old Paths. 

which worketh in its, and of course to purify 
our inner nature; and now mark how, with 
one blow, God's great hammer of truth demol- 
ishes the notion, that he only gives the penitent 
sinner what is in his thoughts when he asks, 
or what his faith then comprehends, which idea 
is supposed to be taught in the passage: 
^'According to thy faith be it unto thee;'' but 
is an erroneous construction of the text, making 
it teach that God is only able to do for men, 
that of which they have an intelligent con- 
ception at the time they ask; that unless. they 
have an entire chano;e of h^art embracino* 
original sin, as well as the depravity, guilt, 
and degeneracy resulting from their own life 
of rebellion distinctly, as separate from justifi- 
cation in their thoughts and faith at the same 
time — God will not, does not, and can not give 
them all these. 

But mark the contrast between this sophistry 
and God's truth, here brought to view^ and its 
application. A poor, ignorant sinner, comes 
penitently to Christ, praying for pardon, lest 
he sink into perdition; his thoughts and prayers 
go no further than this: he has faith, and takes 



Treatise oisr Sanctification, 99 

Jesus as his Saviour. But now is he only able 
to save him as far as his thouo;hts and asldno- 
reach? No, thank God, he is able (that is, 
consistent with his justice he has the moral 
ability to do what this Scripture declares, ^' far 
more " than simply to pardon, though this is 
the most wonderful act God ever done) to do 
** exceeding abundantly above all we ask, or 
thinks 

If he asks less than he needs, God can give 
him exceeding abundantly above all that. If 
he asks all he thinks he needs, and does not 
think of the carnality of his heart, which is at 
enmity against God, and which led him into 
transgression, God can give him far more, 
exceeding abundantly above all he thinks. 
We ask if this is not corroborated by the expe- 
rience of every regenerate sinner when he was 
pardoned. Did he not receive '* joy that was 
unspeakable and full of glory ? " Had he any 
conception of the magnitude of the change 
wrought by this power within him ? Did he 
not sing: 



100 ^-^^ Old Paths. 

0! the rapturous height, 

Of that holy delight, 

I first found in the blood of the Lamb ; 

' Twas a heaven below. 

My Redeemer to know, 

' Twas a heaven in Jesus^ name. 

Does not this passage of Scripture, and it is 
in harmony with every other, stand in eternal 
refutation to the metaphysical subtlety that 
God can only do for us what our intelligent 
faith comprehends when we ask, that infinite 
intelligence and goodness is limited by human 
ignorance, and also that it fumiishes the instruc- 
tion which poor sinners most need, encouraging 
them to come to Jesus just as they are; that 
if they have any faith, even as small as a grain 
of mustard seed, so that it enables God to 
reach their case, and to do anything for them, 
he can, upon the same principle, do everything 
they need, making them *' new creatures in 
Christ Jesus," absolutely destroying all the old 
things of their corrupt nature, renovating it to 
a new and glorious life of purity and joy, of 
which, in all the dead past of their being, they 
never had the least conception. 

This principle upon which God dispenses 



Treatise on Sanctification. IQI 

his mercies to men, is forcibly illustrated in 
the following miracle: 

Mat., ix, 2-7: ''And behold, they brought 
to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed; 
and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick 
of the palsy: Son, be of good cheer, thy sins 
be forgiven thee. And behold, certain of the 
scribes said within themselves, this man blas- 
phemeth. And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, 
said: Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts, 
for whether is easier to say, thy sins be for- 
given thee, or to say, arise, and walk? but 
that ye may know that the Son of Man hath 
power on earth to forgive sins. Then saith he 
to the sick of the palsy: Arise, take up thy 
bed and go unto thy house, and he arose and 
departed to his house." 

We see by this miracle that it was wrought 
according; to the faith of those who brouo;ht 
him to Jesus ; and that in forgiving his 
sins, Jesus cured him of his palsy, although 
nothing had been said, or no allusion made, 
that there had been any thought about sins in 
the mind of him who had been healed, or in 
those of them who had brought him to Jesus; 



102 ^-^-^ ^^^ Paths, 

their faith went no higher or further than the 
curing of the palsy, and this was done in the 
very act of forgiving his sins; "and Jesus 
seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the 
palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee.'' The pardon 
of sin carried with it the cure of the palsy, 
and the cure of the palsy comprehended the 
forgiveness of sins. " Whether is easier to say, 
thy sins be forgiven thee, or, arise and walk.'' 
Does not this clearly teach and establish the 
principle that if Jesus can do anything for a 
man who applies to him for favor, though it is 
only for his physical nature, he can also and 
will heal all the maladies of his moral being ? 
What Christ did for this man was in honor of 
the faith of others, illustrating also that other 
Scripture: "The prayer of faith shall save the 
sick, and God will raise him up again." 

By this example we are taught that Jesus is 
in nowise limited by the ignorant and crude 
ideas, metaphysical niceties or mathematical 
precision, in the bestowment of his gracious 
favors upon mankind, but acts on the grand 
and God-like principle of universal benevolence 
and mercy for lost men. His plan contenv 



Treatise on Sanctification. 1Q3 

plates the conditions and necessities of all, 
under all the circumstances in which it is 
possible to place men. Has any lost son or 
daughter of the race '^ repentance toward God 
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ/' there 
is no question as to the degree of either; but 
has he these ? Can he, according to the exhor- 
tation of the prophet, in allusion to the lifting 
up the serpent by Moses in the wilderness, 
upon which the people who had been bitten 
by the fiery flying serpents, looked and were 
healed — *' Look unto me and be ye saved, all 
ye ends of the earth,'' — if so, the look of faith 
saves him from all the venomous poison of sin 
in his nature. 

All the analogies of God's Bible teach this 
same doctrine, which shuts us up to the con- 
clusion that if a man has any degree of repent- 
ance toward God, or any degree of faith 
toward our Lord Jesus Christ, God not onlv 
can but must, according to his pledged veracity, 
pardon his sins, and also ^^ cleanse him from all 
unrighteousness." This attitude of the sinner 
meets the conditions proposed by God himself, 
and lays him, therefore, under moral obliga- 



104 ^-^^ Old Paths. 

tion to accomplish for the sinner everything he 
needs to fit him for the enjoyment of eternal 
life. He is thus reconciled and received into 
eternal fellowship with the Father and with 
his Son Jesus Christ. We say it is eternal, 
only on the condition that the individual never 
removes his cause out of the keeping of God, 
and which requires deliberate transgression 
to do. 

There is another feature taught by this 
miracle which adds strength to our position, 
namely, the man was perfectly healed of his 
palsy. A moment before he was so weak and 
feeble that he was unable to walk, but now he 
is not only strong enough to walk, but also to 
carry his bed; and what was true in this case 
was also in every other upon whom Jesus 
wrought his miracles; all were perfectly cured 
of whatsoever disease they had; and this not 
only illustrates, but vindicates the great prin- 
ciple, that whatsoever God does for a sinner, 
he does perfectly and wholly. 

If the theory is true, that in Christ^s miracles 
of grace in saving men, he only saves in part, 
then should we not find some of the cases, if 



Treatise on Sanctificatiojst. 105 

not all, left on record of his miracles, one-half 
or two-thirds cured, left in a convalescent state? 
Those sick of palsy would have been, perhaps, 
raised off their beds, but left hobbling about 
on crutches for perhaps a number of years, at 
the end of which it would be necessary to 
apply again to Jesus for a second cure; but as 
there is no such case on record, therefore Jesus 
performed no such bad piece of work while on 
earth, and if he had, would he have earned the 
reputation of being *' The Great Physician? ^' 

This leaves no grounds for the inference that 
when Jesus receives a sinner, and endeavors to 
convert him into a saint, leaves his heart still 
soiled by sin, marred by depravity, partly 
spiritual but partly carnal. Such an idea casts 
the darkest reflection either upon the ability or 
goodness of God, for were it the sinner's work 
to make his own heart pure, he alone would 
be to blame were he not to do it; but as it is 
the work of God only, and as every penitent- 
sinner is willing God should cleanse him from 
everything offensive in his sight, therefore on 
God alone must rest the responsibility if the 
work is not then done, and for undertaking to 



106 ^^^ Old Paths. 

create a heart anew, and of sadly failing in the 
attempt. 

This theory claims that Jesus had the power 
to bind the carnal mind of the sinner when he 
was born again, so that it did not reign, and 
that he does then destroy a part of it; but 
after having gone so far he prefers to live in 
the same heart in which this, his prisoner lives, 
clanking his chains, and clamoring furiously 
for the supremacy. Strange habitation ! mar- 
velous commingling of Christ and Belial ! 
singular concord between Jesus and Satan ! 

And who does not see that this is the legiti- 
mate teaching of this terrible doctrine? The 
doctrine that if Jesus cleanses the sinner's 
heart at all, he cleanses it wholly at the same 
time; and that this is done when he first 
obtains a part in him, is further illustrated by 
the following circumstance, recorded in John, 
xiii, 4-10: "Jesus riseth from supper, laid 
aside his garments, took a towel and girded 
himself; after that he poureth water into a 
basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and 
to wipe them with the towel wherewith he 
was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, 



Treatise on Sanctification, JQ? 

and Peter saith unto him: Lord, dost thou 
wash my feet ? Jesus answered and said unto 
him: What I do, thou knowest not now, but 
thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto 
him: Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus 
saith unto him: If I wash thee not, thou hast 
no part in me. Simon Peter saith unto him: 
Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and 
and my head. Jesus saith unto him: He that 
is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, 
but is clean every whit." 

Jesus knew that there would be some who 
would refuse to let him wash them from sin, 
and to these this instruction is addressed, 
namely: " If I wash thee not, thou hast no part 
in me." He also knew there would be others 
who would claim and teach the doctrine, that 
when Jesus first pardons and washes from sin, 
it is only in part, and the heart left partly 
unclean. Peter here represents both of these 
errors, for which Jesus reproved him, corrected 
the errors, and left the truth on record, so that 
there would be no excuse for entertaining them 
in all coming time. 

When Peter found that if Jesus did not wash 



108 T^^ Old Paths. 

his feet he would have no part in him, he was 
all eager to be washed, and to wash his feet 
was not sufficient, but wanted Jesus to wash 
his hands and head; but the answer of the 
great teacher gave him clearly to understand 
that if any man submits to have Jesus wash 
him at all, he not only has a part in him, but 
is clean every whit. '^He that is washed 
needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean 
every wJiiV^ In view of such instruction, com- 
ing as it does from the highest authority, is it 
not marvelous that this same error of Peter's, 
thus exposed, should ever afterward been enter- 
tained by any intelligent man professing to be 
a disciple of Jesus. But it strikingly exhibits 
the natural tendency of the human mind to 
prefer the erroneous sentiments of men to the 
holy truths of God. 

Indeed, such a prominence is given to this 
error, that we find it put into poetry and sung 
in our own church for more than a hundred 
years, and we apprehend this fact has been the 
means, in no small degree, of fastening the 
error upon the minds and faith of our people. 
Thus: 



Treatise on Sanctification. 109 

Wash me, and make me thus thine own, 

Wash me and mine thou art ; 
Wash me, but not my feet alone, 

My hands, my head, my heart. 

For this the truth of Jesus should have been 
substituted, and if sung with the same spirit 
and enthusiasm, would have done much toward 
checking the march of the error: 

If I shall wash thy feet alone, 
With the blood that doth atone, 

Every whit thou art made whole. 
Body, spirit, mind and soul. 

Can we come to the preposterous conclusion 
that if a poor, perishing sinner is in such a 
frame of mind and heart to receive any good 
thing from God, and asks him for ^' bread (the 
bread of life), will he give him a stone," or 
that which is part bread and part stone? or 
"if he ask for a fish will he give him a ser- 
pent," or a mongrel, part fish and part serpent? 
Another erroneous idea connected with this 
subject is that purity of heart is synynomous 
with power, we mean that power which enables 
its possessor to prevail with God and man. 

Every dispensation in the history of God's 



110 2"^^ Old Paths, 

dealings with the human family, shows this 
element of power to have been faith, both in 
instrumentally subserving the cause of God 
and in working miracles, that this power may 
exist in the absence of purity, as one of the 
principal elements embraced in the term 
charity, is evident from this expression of the 
apostle: "Though I have all faith, so that I 
could remove mountains, and have not charity, 
I am nothino^.*' In relation to this, the ano;el 
said to Jacob: "Thy name shall no more be 
called Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast 
thou power with God and with man, and hast 
prevailed." 

The holy prophets of old, as well as the 
saints of all ages, have been equally pure and 
holy, but not equally powerful; the Christian 
or spiritual dispensation was to be as it has 
been, peculiar in this respect; hence Jesus said 
to Peter (referring to the strength which was to 
be given him), although he had been pure from 
the time he left all in obedience to the call of 
Jesus, followed him, and when converted into 
the gospel dispensation, " When thou art con- 
verted, streno-then thv brethren,'' and more 



Treatise on Sanctification. \W 

definitely, " Tarry ye in Jerusalem until ye be 
endowed with power from on high.'' Hence, 
also the conversions which took place on the 
day of Pentecost, to which reference is here 
made, were of the most powerful character, 
and this was to be the example of the conver- 
sions under the whole gospel dispensation, and 
was there any sin left in the hearts of these 
justified believers ? Were they not all filled 
with the Holy Ghost? Were they not all 
sanctified ? Was there any room left in their 
hearts where sin could dwell ? Was there any 
weakness, or did they lack any element of 
Christian experience, and remember, there were 
three thousand of these conversions in one day ? 

There certainly is no room here in which to 
get in Mr. Wesley's second blessing, which 
alone proposes to give God full possession of 
the heart, and fill it with the Holy Ghost, for 
** these were all filled with the Holy Ghosts 

The Holy Ghost, according to prediction of 
the prophets, and the promise of the Father, 
had now been given, and according to which 
it was to accomplish three things: 

First. He was to comfort the church in the 



1X2 ^^^ Old Paths, 

absence of Christ between his ascension and 
second coming. *^And I will pray the Father, 
and he shall give you another comforter, that 
he may abide with you forever.'' 

Second. He was to so quicken the minds of 
the disciples, that they would be able to remem- 
ber all the teachings of Jesus during the three 
and a half years of his ministry, as well as to 
teach them the meaning of these things. 

John xiv, 26: '*But the comforter, which is 
the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in 
my name, he shall teach you all things, and 
bring all things to your remembrance, whatso- 
ever I have said unto you.'' By this they were 
qualified to write the gospels. 

Third. They were to be ** endowed with 
power from on high." 

Peter is a good example, illustrative of the 
strength and power the gospel dispensation 
conferred in comparison with the Jewish. 
See him in Pilate's judgment hall, quailing with 
fear before a mere servant maid, cursing and 
swearing that he ^' knew not the man." But 
now see him, on the day of Pentecost, mani- 
festing a sublime moral heroism fully equal to 



Treatise on Sanctificatiok, 113 

the occasion, charging the multitude with being 
the crucifiers of their common Lord and master, 
*' Whom ye have taken, and by wicked hands 
have crucified and slain.^' 

To suppose these additional elements of 
wisdom, comfort and power, peculiar to the 
gospel age, made the hearts of its converts 
purer and holier than those of any previous 
dispensation, would be to suppose God took 
men to heaven previous to that time with 
unholy and impure hearts. 

It is sanctified talent, full of faith and the 
Holy Ghost, which makes a man like a prince, 
*' with power to prevail with God and man.'' 
A man removed only a degree above a mere 
idiot, may be converted and purified by the 
blood of Jesus, as pure as purity can be, and 
yet he is as weak as an infant to prevail with 
God and men in the great work of the recon- 
ciliation of mankind to their Maker, and any 
attempt at this would only provokes a smile. 
It is only necessary thus to merely glance at 
this truth, in order to show that there is very 
little connection between Christian purity and 
Christian power. There is this discrimination to 
8 



114 The Old Paths, 

be made: A man may have Christian purity, 
but not power, but he cannot have the power 
without the purity, except, perhaps to work 
miracles. The servant which had the five 
talentSj gained for his Lord five more, while 
the one with the two only gained other two, 
though both were equally pure and approved. 



Treatise on Sanctification. Wb 



CHAPTER VL 

THE MORAL NATURE OE INFANTS. 

We assume that the nature of children before 
they arrive at that degree of mental capacity 
to understand the nature of sin against God, 
is that of perfect purity, that is, under the atone- 
ment, and consequently that when adult sinners 
are converted, they are only on an elevation 
of purity equal with the little child, and that 
even the saints in heaven are no purer. 

Luke xyiii, 15, 17: "And they brought unto 
him also infants, that he would touch them; 
but when his disciples saw it they rebuked 
them, but Jesus called them unto him and 
said, suflfer little children to come unto me, and 
forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of 
God. Verily, I say unto you, whosoever shall 
not receive the kingdom of God as a little 
child, shall in no case enter therein." 

Mat, xviii, 2, 3: "And Jesus called a little 
child unto him, ^jid set him in the midst of 
them, and said, verily I say unto you, except 



116 The Old Paths. 

ye loe conyerted, and become as little children, 
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of God." 

We are here taught by the '• grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ which brino:eth salvation, 
and which has appeared to all men," that all 
infants or little children are made fit subjects 
for the kingdom of God. The fact that infants 
are incapable of complying with any conditions 
if they are unholy, they must be made holy 
unconditionally, or be damned. 

Jesus does not say or intimate that when I 
shall purifj^ their hearts, they will be subjects 
of the kingdom of God, but, " of such is the 
kingdom of God." 

Another thing to be remarked here, is that 
those who are converted are declared to be fit 
subjects for the kingdom of God, and as such 
shall enter therein, and therefore must be pure. 

This is not the kingdom of grace, or the 
principles which rule in the kingdom of God, 
and which enter and sway the hearts of the 
saints on earth, but the kingdom of glory into 
which they themselves are to enter. 

Now, if converted sinners are still unholy 
in heart, a part of the carnal mind still remain- 



Treatise on Sanctification. \yj 

ing, how could Jesus say, of such is the king- 
dom of God, and if a man becomes thus 
converted and like a little child, he shall with- 
out any further purifying enter this kingdom, 
are they not then perfectly pure in heart. 

Jesus here settles another great question of 
theological discussion, which is, that whatever 
contamination was transmitted to the race by 
the sin of Adam, he took it all away, so that 
all infants are sinlessly pure, or it would have 
been false to have said, ** of such is the king- 
dom of God/' 

It follows, therefore, that all the depravity 
of the adult heart results from its own sin, 
committed in thought, word and deed, taking 
into consideration Christ's great atonement. We 
are aware that this truth is just beginning to be 
understood, and therefore received, but as it is 
clearly the truth taught by Jesus, we adopt it. 

We say, therefore, that the great atonement 
included in its provisions of mercy and grace, 
all infants, unconditionally, which means all 
children before arriving at the age to qualify 
them to discern between right and wrong; hence 
they are all subjects of the grace of Christ's 



118 The Old Paths. 

great salvation, and as all men were once 
infants, therefore, the whole race was once in 
a state of gracious salvation, and had they 
never committed actual transgression, would 
not only never have been depraved, but would 
have all entered into the kingdom of God. 

The apostle Paul, discoursing upon this sub- 
ject, shows that he understood it just as it was 
taught by Jesus. 

Rom,^ V, 18: '' Therefore as by the offence 
of one judgment came upon all men to con- 
demnation; even so by the righteousness of 
one the free gift came upon all men unto justi- 
fication of life." The doctrine here taught is, 
that by the transgression of Adam, the whole 
race were brought under condemnation; and 
also, by the righteousness of one (Christ), the 
free gift of justification unto life, came upon all 
men. As adult sinners, and all are such who 
are not in a state of justification of life, were 
once children, therefore these passages teach 
that the free gift (grace) of Christ justifies the 
whole race to life when children. That this 
infantile justification of life is a perfect quali- 
fication or fitness for the kingfdom of God, and 



Treatise on Sanctification. ng 

that conversion means the same great work of 
fitness for that kingdom. ^' Except ye be con- 
verted, and become as little children, ye can 
in no case enter into the kingdom of God." 

When, therefore, an adult sinner is con- 
verted or justified to life, he is in that state 
where the atonement puts all little children: 
'^And of such is the kingdom of heaven." 
Therefore, converted sinners are perfectly 
pure, fitted for the kingdom of God. 

We are aware it is said that infants are 
cleansed from sin and depravity uncondition- 
ally, if they are taken out of the world before 
they arrive at the age of accountability. But 
this is disputed by the positive language of 
Jesus: ^'Except ye be converted and become 
like little children^^'' not what they may become, 
or those will who die in infancy, but what 
little children now are, '' as little children." 

The idea that infants have impure and unholy 
natures, therefore contradicts this positive teach- 
ing of Scripture, and had its origin in that ter- 
rible doctrine, which declared there were 
** infants in hell a span long," ''and that hell 
was paved with the skulls of infants," as it has 



120 ^^^ Old Paths, 

been represented by the advocates of partial 
election and reprobation, which idea is obso- 
lete; none teaches it now. Besides, if God 
can unconditionally purify, and make the hearts 
of those who die in infancy holy, without any 
more knowledge of the operation on their part 
than the infants who died were capable of 
having, and does not do it, then he is a respecter 
of persons, which he holds to be sin in man, 
and yet he is guilty of it himself, although the 
apostle declares: " God is no respecter of 
persons." 

That God is under moral obligation to 
accomplish the destruction of sin and unholi- 
ness in every form in which it may exist, as 
far as is consistent with his plan to save men, 
and this is the extent of his power (moral 
power). Is the foundation upon which his pur- 
poses, provisions, promises, and therefore his 
veracity rests, and which requires him not to 
tolerate its existence in any form or degree for 
a single moment, beyond what is essentially 
consistent, and therefore possible for him to 
do in the premises. "For this purpose the 
Son of God was manifested, that he might 



Teeatise on Sanctification, 121 

destroy the works of the devil." As the devil 
introduced sin into the world, therefore all sin 
is either the direct or indirect work of the 
devil. That the plan and purpose of God 
contemplates this, and that he works up to its 
execution as fast as possible, is also strongly 
asserted by the prophet, moved by the Holy 
Ghost. Thus: "• What more could I have done 
for my vineyard that I have not done in it." 
We cannot pursue this argument, and indeed 
there is no necessity for it, because the very 
antagonism between God and sin, and the 
admission of his power to accomplish the grand 
purpose, renders the destruction of sin, and 
its perpetrators, as fast as it is possible for him 
to do it, inevitable. God must yet reign in a 
purified universe. 

We have seen that Christ sets up little chil- 
dren as the standard to which adult sinners 
will rise when converted; and as the nature 
of these were as pure as that which reigns in 
the kingdom of God, and as the nature of 
adult sinners, when converted, was as pure as 
that of the little children, therefore conversion 
is a condition of purity, which is as high as 



122 The Old Paths. 

that which reigus in the kingdom of God in 
heaven. 

In contradiction to this, it is said infants 
have inherited sinful nature from Adam, which 
makes them hate God and love sin. But on 
the authority of Jesus and Paul, as above pre- 
sented, we deny this. And we care not if it 
is defended by all the theologians of the world, 
and even by the angels of heaven; and here is 
our authority: (xa/., i, 5-9: " I marvel that ye 
are so soon removed from him that called you 
into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, 
which is not another (it was erroneous gospel, 
and therefore no gospel at all); but there be 
some that trouble you, and would pervert the 
gospel of Christ; but though we, or an angel 
from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you 
than that we have preached unto you, let him 
be accursed. So say I again, if any man preach 
any other gospel unto you than that ye have 
received, let him be accursed.^' Here Paul 
declares the doctrines he taught to be in 
accordance with those of Christ, and calls on 
the membership of the Galatian Church to be 
the judge; and the doctrines he had already 



Treatise on Sanctification, 123 

preached unto them to be the standard hy 
which they were to determine the truth or 
falsehood of any others, coming from whatever 
source, or clothed with whatever authority, 
either by himself or any other man, or even an 
angel from heaven. 

These Christians were enjoined not only to 
reject all teachings contrary to these, but to 
esteem those who taught them as resting under 
the curse of God — as perverters of the gospel 
of Christ. From such authority are we not 
clothed with the right ? Nay, is not the duty 
enjoined on us to criticise and reject any 
sentiment, especially when it has nothing but 
uninspired man as its authority, which, in our 
judgment, is not in accordance with the teach- 
ings of Jesus and Paul, or which is not in har- 
mony with the whole Bible ? 

We say here, once for all, that we utterly 
reject, and with abhorrence repudiate, the 
popish idea that the sentiments of any unin- 
spired man of the past or present are to be 
taken for granted as authority as to the mean- 
ing of Scripture doctrines. The very moment 
we concede the opinions of men as authority, 



124 The Old Paths. 

no more Bibles need be printed, in which 
respect the Eomish church is not only consist- 
ent but right; for if the opinions of the com- 
mentators are to be studied and adopted as 
authority, and this concession, of course, 
rejects all but the first commentator, except 
they agree with him, and even then their com- 
mentaries may be treated as the Mohammedans 
treated the library at Alexandria, which they 
burned. "If what the books taught was in 
the Koran, there was no further use for them; 
and if not, then they ought to be destroyed.'^ 

This erroneous concession also forbids the 
idea that the Bible is the book of all ages, and 
which requires the development of events to 
fulfill its predictions, being thus progressively 
unfolded, how absurd that an uninspired man 
of the past could, and did understand its doc- 
trines better than those who came later in the 
world's history. If Jesus had taught this sub- 
serviency to human opinion, would he have 
.enjoined on his hearers the duty of searching 
the Scriptures ? 

" Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think 
ye have eternal life, and they are they which 



Treatise on Sanctification. 125 

testify of me." It would have been, search the 
commentaries and expositions of the lawyers, 
doctors, scribes and pharisees, '^ for they are 
they which testify of me." Instead of this, 
Jesus charged these commentators and doctors 
with having made void the law of God by their 
traditions" (commentaries). And when the 
common people heard him gladly, and multi- 
tudes followed him, these bigoted defenders 
of the opinions of learned men, tauntingly 
asked, ^^Have any of the rulers or any of the 
Pharisees believed on him, but these people 
who know not the law are cursed ?" 

We fully subscribe to the great cardinal doc- 
trine of the Protestant church, '' that the sacred 
Scriptures are a sufficient guide to faith and 
practice," and to that of Paul, *^ that no Scrip- 
ture is of any private interpretation," but 
belongs to the church at large, the membership 
as well as the ministry. Let the people become 
familiar with the meaning of Scripture doctrine 
as they may and should, and the erroneous 
doctrine which comes from the pulpit now 
would not be tolerated; in this Jesus and Paul 
were right, and Rome was wrong. 



126 The Old Paths. 

In relation to the idea that the hearts of 
little children have a natural tendency against 
Christ, and in favor with wickedness: We 
would inquire of parents, if they did not 
always find their little children on the sympa- 
thetic side of Jesus, when they would tell them 
of his heroic virtues, and submission to sufler for 
their sakes ? We speak of little children just 
as Jesus has it, and who had not become con- 
taminated by the darkening and hardening 
effects of actual transgression. Did their little 
hearts not always pulsate in harmony with that 
of Jesus, and burn with indignation against his 
foes and persecutors ? 

Or, where is the mother or father who has 
engaged the attention of a child by the narra- 
tive of Joseph, Daniel, David, Moses, the three 
Hebrew children, or the righteous prophets 
and holy martyrs, whose hearts did not kindle 
with sympathetic emotion with them all, and 
with indio^nation ao:ainst their wicked enemies ? 
Indeed, we venture nothing by making the 
declaration there never was an exception since 
the world began; and does not this fact present 
an eternal refutation of the assumption that 



Treatise on Sanctificatiojsf. 127 

infant hearts have an aversion to Christ and 
holiness, and are in love and harmony with sin 
and rebellion? Does it not corroborate the 
words of Christ to the contrary, ''Of such is 
the kingdom of God.'' 

That some children may very early manifest 
wicked hearts, is most sadly true, but, in order 
to account for this, we must consider the fact, 
that imitation is one of the first manifestations 
of infantile intelligence. How soon do they 
see the exhibition of bad tempers, impatience, 
resentment, deception and '' returning evil for 
evil," and to a greater or less degree, either in 
their own family, at their neighbors, or at 
schools, or play with older children; all these 
examples of sin, in view of which, how can 
they long remain uncontaminated ? Indeed, 
we regard it as wonderful, that so generally 
they remain as pure as they do, and it is here 
we find the great source of human depravity, 
and not in that in which thejr were born. Take 
away all sinners from these children, let them 
be surrounded from their birth, by immortal 
saints, and this also be their own nature, and 
which proposes no moral change, but exempts 



128 ^^^ Old Paths. 

them from all pain and death, as well as all 
necessities which cannot be met, and also places 
them where it is superior to the Garden of 
Eden, wherein no devil to tempt can ever come, 
and we believe they would forever remain 
holy and righteous, notwithstanding their 
inherited, deranged and unequally balanced 
physical, moral and mental constitution, which 
idea is inculcated in these words: ^' I was born 
in sin, and sliapen in iniquity;'''' and yet we have 
the positive declaration of Christ, *'0f such is 
the kingdom of God.'' 

This innocent, yet warped condition of the 
human mind and heart, as the common inheri- 
tance of the race, is as philosophical as it is 
scriptural. 

To illustrate the transmission of this derange- 
ment, we will suppose the parents of a child 
are thieves, and live by the practice, the inevi- 
table result, mentally, morally and physically 
upon that child when born into the world, 
Vould be the constitutional pre-requisites of a 
thief, his whole nature would be shapen in har- 
mony with this vice, and the first lesspns he 
would learn, would be those which relate to the 



Treatise on Sanctification. 129 

art of stealing, secretiveness, selfishness, lying, 
and all forms of deception; these rapidly blunt 
his sense of the rights of others, weakening 
and depraving his moral faculties more and 
more, at the expense of the invigoration of 
those of a selfish character. The natural con- 
sequence of this would be, that the children 
of such parents would possess a nature more 
inclined to steal when born into the world, 
than that of their parents, and if circumstances 
were favorable for its indulgence, would make 
more notorious thieves than they. Thus, "the 
sins of the fathers are visited on the children 
to the third and fourth generation of them that 
hate me " (God). 

Not that the children are held personally 
responsible for the actual sins of their parents, 
but the effect of the sinful lives of such, who 
thus continue to hate God from generation to 
generation, are transmitted to their children 
and children's children, etc. Thus, the con- 
stitution, mentally, morally and physically, is 
shaped in harmony with iniquity, and trans- 
mitted as an accursed inheritance to their 
unfortunate offspring. 
9 



130 T^^ Old Paths. 

*'The parents have eaten sour grapes, and 
the children's teeth are set on edge/' is a figure 
of inspiration, used to teach this truth, and 
beautifully, forcibly and philosophically ex- 
plains the principle of the contamination of the 
race, and fully accounts for the existence of all 
the depravity of human nature, without run- 
ning back to Adam as the infinite source of 
moral corruption, whence the whole race is 
supplied. 

We will now take the little thief^ and sup- 
pose his parents to have died when he was one 
month old, by which event he is adopted by 
Christian parents. Perhaps the child will not 
be three years of age before he will manifest 
a propensity to steal. The parents, observing 
this, bend all their energy to inculcate into his 
young mind the opposite sentiments of justice 
and respect for the rights of others. With 
such teaching, this propensity in the child 
grows more and more weak, because, according 
to the laws of physiology, those faculties being 
less and less used and excited, less and less 
brain matter is deposited upon them, as the 
organs of the mind, and the opposite senti- 



Treatise on Sanctification, \^\ 

ments of benevolence and conscientiousness 
become correspondingly more vigorous. 

He has now arrived at an age which enables 
him to discern between right and wrong, and 
becomes a convert to Christianity, but he has 
not lost all his propensity to steal, and cannot, 
for it is interwoven in the very shape of his 
moral, mental and physical constitution, to 
destroy which would be to take his life, but 
is, and always will be, his '' besetting sin,^^ so 
that it will be easier to induce him to steal 
than to commit any other sin. But now he 
has increasing motives not to steal, and increas- 
ing strength to enable him to resist the tempta- 
tion, the grace of God. He reads the instruction 
in the Bible applicable to his case: " Let him 
that stole steal no more," and he sacredly 
obeys it all his life; he successfully resists this 
propensity, and the devil who takes advantage 
of it to induce him into sin, and triumphs. 

Now, we pronounce this man as pure and 
holy, as far as this strongest and worst pro- 
pensity of his heart or moral nature is con- 
cerned — and this, too, is the deepest seat of his 
depravity — as though he had been born with 



132 ^^^ Old Paths. 

an organization endowed with such a sense of 
justice and the rights of others, as multitudes 
are, which never required anything like a strong 
effort to prevent them from stealing, who, even 
without grace, would have revolted at the idea, 
and yet they may have inherited other propen- 
sities to other sinful practices, which were 
stronger or weaker, according to the nature 
and habits of their ancestors, and which would 
have always been som-ces of moral weakness. 
Let us now inquire what would be the effect of 
a temptation to steal, upon such a mind, in order 
to prove the heart impure ? We will suppose 
this man placed in circumstances wherein he 
may steal without being in the least danger of 
detection in the present life. The devil says 
steal, and this propensity of his nature says 
steal; he reflects and deliberates upon the act, 
with his mind not yet decided; he has learned 
to be just, and to scrupulously regard the 
rights of others, and he cannot afford to violate 
them. The good spirit whispers his appro- 
priate text: ''Let him who stole steal no more,'^ 
for God always anticipates the devil. To the 
suggestion, no one will know it, he answers^ 



Treatise on Sakctification. 133 

God will: that no one will see him, he answers, 
God will. In this light and deliberation he 
spurns the idea of stealing, and by faith in God 
triumphs. This is what Paul means when 
'he says: *'If thine eye be single, thy whole 
body shall be full of light," and is acting with 
an eye single to the glory of God. 

The feelings which prompt the motive, and 
the motive itself under which he thus acts, are 
as pure as purity can be, as pure as any which 
ever actuated an angel mind. 

Any act to have moral character must have 
time for thought, reflection and decision, which 
engages the will, without which there can be 
no sin, either against moral or civil law. 
Temptation to sin, thoughts about sin, of its 
consequences in time or eternity, are neither 
sin or the offspring of impurity, for Jesus had 
them all. 

Sin implies a knowledge of the law which 
the act violates, and a deliberate purpose to 
violate that law, regardless of the consequences: 
''this is what defileth a man." The moral law 
estimates. the desire or purpose to sin, the sin 
itself, and holds the sinner just as guilty as 



134 ^-s^ Old Paths. 

though he had committed it, although he had 
no o^Dportunity to do so. ''He that hateth his 
brother is a murderer; " "And he that looketh 
on a woman to lust after her, hath committed 
adultery with her already in his heart/' The 
following passage illustrates the principle: 
"He that knoweth his master's will and doeth 
it not, shall be beaten with many stripes; but 
he that knoweth not, and did commit things 
worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few." 
Purity, therefore, consists in feeling and acting 
in all a man does, under the light he enjoys at 
the time, with motives and intentions to please 
God, although his personal interests may, for 
the time being, suffer by his acts. "Whatso- 
ever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 

This is the purity of Christianity, and is what 
everj^ Christian has when converted, and it is 
all there is of purity, holiness, perfection or 
sanctification. It is evident from this defini- 
tion that what may be perfect purity in one 
degree of light, would be sin in another. What 
we mean by light^ is a clear perception of the 
right or wrong of any act, practice or habit. 
To illustrate : it was once supposed by Christian 



Treatise on Sanctification, 135 

men that they could hold slaves in accordance 
with the principles of the golden rule: '' What 
ye would men should do unto you, do ye even 
so unto themJ' 

Every branch of the Protestant church, and 
its almost entire membership, defended the 
rectitude of the practice, and it would be rash 
judgment to charge all the slaveholders, and 
their apologists of all past years, as being 
siimers. But with the views John Wesley 
entertained in regard to it, he could not have 
been a Christian and defended it, for he said: 
**It was the sum of all villainies." But we 
ask, can a man be a Christian and be a slave- 
holder, with the light now shining upon the 
practice ? 

It was also once supposed that every man 
might indulge in the social glass, and to say 
that the holiest and purest who thus indulged 
were not Christians, would be to charge that 
for a century or more, up to about forty years 
ago, when the first temperance light began to 
shine, there were no pure Christians, or no 
Christians at all, for the history of that period 
shows that all, not only the membership, but 



136 ^-^^ Old Paths. 

the ministers also, took their social glass of 
intoxicating drinks; but can any man do this 
now and be a pure Christian, or one at all ? 
Here we see how a man may be pure and holy, 
actuated by the purest motives, and with '^a 
single eye to the glory of God '' to-day, but 
to-morrow the shedding of new light on his 
practices and habits, he ceases to be pure and 
innocent, only on the condition that he imme- 
diately abandons these and walks up to the 
increased light with which God has favored 
him. If he does this, the following Scripture 
describes his growth and maintenance of his 
purity: 

" If we walk in the light as he is in the light, 
we have fellowship one with another, and the 
blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us 
from all sin." 

Christ also thus describes this progressive 
saint: " Every branch in me that beareth fruit, 
the Father purgeth it that it may bring forth 
more fruit." 

We also see that this state of Christian 
purity is in harmony with that of sanctification. 
^'Preserving the vessel in sanctification and in 



Treatise on Sanctification. 13*7 

honor," and hence of being preserved blameless 
body, soul and spirit. 

It also enables us to understand the follow- 
ing passage: *' Behold, now are we the sons 
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we 
shall be, but we know that when he shall 
appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see 
him as he is, and every one that hath this hope 
in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure." 
And this also: *' Blessed are the pure in heart, 
for they shall see God." 

Actuated by this great hope, he makes every 
sacrifice which his increased light makes mani- 
fest, is his duty, in order to carry him from one 
degree of light to another, showing that there 
are as many degrees of purity as of light, but 
each perfectly pure in itself; such a man pro- 
gressively meets the responsibilities of every 
successive ray of light with which God continues 
to illuminate his moral pathway, from his con- 
version until the end of his Christian journey* 

This is also what is meant by ^^ growing in 
grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. 

^* Learning of him," obtaining a knowledge 



138 ^-^^ Old Paths, 

of the truths he taught; hence *' sanctified by 
the belief of the truth." Mark, it is not the 
truth taught by men, but by Jesus Christ, 
taking these as authority instead of those taught 
by men, when they conflict with each other, 
yielding preconceived opinions though dear as 
right eyes, or loved as right hands. 

We will suggest a plain test upon this point: 
Here is a man who holds to the doctrine of 
what is called ''the second blessing," and in 
harmony with the theorj^, has himself experi- 
enced the feeling he supposes to be sanctifica- 
tion. He now hears the subject fully and fairly 
discussed, and weighs the arguments for and 
against, and finds that his sentiments cannot be 
defended, being opposed to those taught by 
Jesus and the apostles, and after mature delibe- 
ration, has the humility and moral courage to 
abandon them, and accept those taught in the 
Scriptures of truth, such a man rises to the 
standard of the truth " as it is in Jesus," and 
consequently preserves his purity, his sanctifi- 
cation. He thus "grows up into Christ his 
living head;" "He purifieth himself even as 
he is pure;" " The God of peace sanctifies him 



Treatise on Sanctification. 139 

wholly, and thus preserves him blameless;" 
''He is sanctified by the belief of the truth;" 
" Kept clean by the words of Jesus;" his vessel 
is preserved in sanctification and in honor. 
But suppose he still adheres to his theory 
and error, such as it now appears, and appeals 
to John Wesley as his authority, does he not 
dishonor Jesus ? 

He grows up into the spirit and knowledge 
of Wesley, whom he now chooses as his living 
head, but no longer into Christ; he receives 
the teachings of Wesley, and rejects those of 
Jesus. Jesus said, *' Now are ye clean through 
the words which I have spoken unto you, abide 
in me, and let my words abide in you." But 
he chooses rather to be clean through the words 
and theory of Mr. Wesley, such cleansing as 
they propose. 

We have no hesitation in saying that the man 
who comes to such a crisis, and assumes such 
a position, and adopts such a course, sins 
against light and God, and as fatally rejects 
Jesus, as any Jew did at Pilate- s judgment hall. 
It must be observed that we have here supposed 
a case, in which this doctrine has been examined 



140 ^-^^ Old Paths. 

according to the light which now, or at any- 
time shines upon it. He has seen, for instance, 
that the words of Jesus do not teach that a 
man must seek sanctification or purity, after 
being converted, just as he sought justification, 
but that it is the result of his conversion or 
justification; that the Bible does not enjoin it 
as a duty to make a distinct profession of 
sanctification, not to do which is to lose it. He 
sees that no apostle or disciple ever left on 
record such a profession. That the great 
apostle of the Gentiles said of himself, "I am 
the chief of sinners.^^ That none ever said, I am 
sanctified, I am perfect, I am pure, I am clean, 
I am holy, I am better than other men. It is 
true, he may find one profession in the sacred 
record bearing a striking resemblance to it. 
LuJce^ xviii: ^'One of the scribes stood and 
prayed thus with himself: ' God, I thank thee 
that I am not as other men.' '^ 

This called out the following criticism of 
Jesus: ^'And he spake this parable unto certain 
which trusted in themselves that they were 
righteous and despised others.'' Instead of 
of thus parading their own righteousness. 



Treatise on Sanctification. \^\ 

We have also the following instruction from 
Paul, Phil,, 2, 3, 5: ^*Let nothing be done 
through vain glory, but in lowliness of mind 
let each esteem other better than themselves; 
let this mind be in you which was also in Christ 
Jesus.'' 

But we would ask if those professing the 
second blessing, do not reverse all this, and 
instead of esteeming others better than them- 
selves, absolutely esteem the altar or anxious 
seat the only appropriate place for all others 
but themselves ? 

Now, we ask again, after mature and impar- 
tial investigation, which is the test to which 
every man should submit his sentiments ? We 
are convinced this doctrine, so repugnant to 
the spirit and letter of Christianity, can still 
be maintained, and the individual preserve his 
purity and reverence for the words of JesuSo 
Can he prefer the teachings of men to those 
of Christ and the apostles, and be innocent ? 



142 The Old Paths. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ME. WESLEY'S SERMONS, "Sm IN BELIEYEES," REYIEWED. 

We now propose to consider the arguments in 
favor of this doctrine, contained in two of Mr. 
John Wesley's sermons, entitled "Sin in 
Believers, and Repentance of Believers." To 
suppose Mr. Wesley's teachings free from 
error, is to suppose him not human. And it 
is difficult for us to conceive how a mind so 
logical, possessing an intelligence so broad and 
diversified, could have been the author of this 
theory, and with no better proof could have 
been satisfied with its correctness. 

The circumstance which gave rise to the pre- 
paration and preaching of these sermons was, 
that a man by the name of Zinzendorf had been 
preaching that when God converted a sinner 
he made a perfect work of it, cleansing his 
heart from all sin and unrighteousness, as well 
as pardoning his transgressions. 

Mr. Wesley gives the following description 
of the hearts of believers who are in a state of 



Treatise on Sanctification. 143 

justification at and after conversion. We quote 
from the sermons without giving the page. 
He says: ^^It is true that when they (sinners) 
first pass from death unto life, they desire 
nothing more but God. ^ Whom have I in 
heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth 
I desire beside thee; ' but it is not always so. 

^* Every one feels the love of the world 
sooner or later. Every believer, even from 
the moment of his justification, has in his heart 
pride, self-will, contrary to the will of God, 
covetousness, envy, the carnal mind, love of the 
world, and all evil — are lovers of pleasure 
more than lovers of God. 

*^A conviction of this sin remaining in their 
hearts is the repentance of believers. 

*^A conviction of their guiltiness is another 
branch of that repentance which belongs to the 
children of God. 

"A man may be in the favor of God, though 
he feels sin, but not if he yields to it, feeling 
sin does not forfeit the favor of God, giving 
way to it does." 

This attempt at the reconciliation of such 
incongruous ideas, we can consider in no other 



144 The Old Paths. 

light than mere sophistry, having no real 
foundation either in reason or Scripture. It 
will be seen that Mr. Wesley's whole argument 
rests on the proposition that the sins known 
by these names may exist in the heart and not 
be yielded to. 

In opposition to this we assume, and shall 
attempt to prove, this to be unphilosophical 
and unscriptural. 

Our first argument is, that these terms express 
active principles, and it would be as reasonable 
to suppose the inactive existence of fire as that 
these can be in the heart and not actuate the 
man. It is their activity which gives them 
existence, and what gives them activity is, that 
the heart furnishes material for consumption. 

In order to illustrate this principle, it is 
necessary to examine the terms thus used as 
they stand recorded in the Bible; and as they 
are the words which the ''Holy Ghost useth,'' 
we appeal to him for a definition of their 
meaning. 

We take first that of unbelief Belief and 
unbelief express exercise of the mind and heart, 
as well as* opposite principles. 



Treatise on Sanctification. 145 

The indispensable condition of belief or 
unbelief is knowledge. A man, therefore, can 
have no belief or unbelief in regard to a matter 
concerning which he is entirely ignorant. The 
mere statement of this proposition is sufficient 
for its vindication. A mind can only believe 
upon evidence, and of course can only disbe- 
lieve after the investigation of the evidence 
within his reach; and this disbelief is the rejec- 
tion of the evidence, and a refusal to act in 
accordance with it is infidelity; first, to the 
man's own convictions; and secondly, to him 
who requires different action. And what makes 
it unbelief is the result of this mental exercise 
and determination. 

K the subject upon which the exercise is 
had is the claims of God upon the individual, 
the rejection of the evidence is unbelief, and 
this unbelief is sin, from which it follows that 
there can be no unbelief in the heart as a harm- 
less or innocent thing. 

In confirmation of this view, we find every 
passage of Scripture containining the words 
doubt or unbelief to signify sin, and conse- 
quent condemnation, and that, too, without 
10 



146 The Old Paths. 

regard to the individual, whether professing to 
be a Christian or not. The only discrimination 
is against those who profess to be the children 
of God. Unbelief in the hearts of these is 
intensely^ore wicked in the estimation of God, 
because they thus sin against the greater light. 
We introduce a few of these passages to illus- 
trate: 

Rom. xiv, 23: ''And he that doubteth is 
damned (condemned) if he eat, because he 
eateth not with faith, for whatsoever is not of 
faith is sin.'' There is no room here to get in 
Mr. Wesley's guiltless unbelief. It is not how 
much he doubts, but if he doubt at all he is a 
condemned sinner. 

Heb. iii, 12: "Take heed, brethren, lest 
there be in any of you an evil heart of unbe- 
lief, in departing from the living God." Here 
Paul's brethren were in danger of having their 
hearts becoming unbelieving, and if they did, 
it would not be a quiescent, but an active, mov- 
ing, evil hearty " departing from the living 
God," where unbelief exists. Such is its w^ork; 
and if it exists in the heart of a man at the 
moment of his conversion, then he begins at 



Treatise on Sanctification. 147 

that moment to ^^ depart from the living God.'^ 
It is the very nature of such an evil heart to 
go away from God." 

Chapter iv, 11: *^Let us labor, therefore, to 
enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the 
same example of unbelief," To have unbelief, 
therefore, is to fall from the favor of God, and 
forfeits the right to enter into eternal rest. 
But it is needless to continue these quotations, 
for there is not in the whole Bible the descrip- 
tion of a heart which had unbelief, but was 
also a sinful heart. There are a few apparent 
exceptions, but we shall see they are not real. 

Pride is another of these sins. This also 
must be active to exist. To talk about pride 
in the heart chained, and therefore harmless, is 
to suppose it to be a person, abstract from the 
heart itself, which is only its tenement, and not 
a principle. 

Pride and humility are opposite and express 
feelings of the heart, which feelings are part 
of the heart itself ; and is it not nonsense to 
talk about inactive feelings ? Indeed, pride 
comes into existence by the yielding of the 
heart in a forbidden direction, and therefore 



148 ^-^-^ Old Pates. 

without this yielding it cannot exist; and the 
heart in which it exists can only be a sinful 
one. It is the sin which universally rejects 
God. 

Of those having such hearts it is said: ^' The 
proud the Lord knoweth afar oflF ; and all the 
proud, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble^ 
and the day that cometh shall burn them up, 
saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave 
them neither root nor branch." Just in the 
degree in which pride exists in the heart, that 
heart, says God, shall not reign over it; and if 
it was there when that heart was converted, 
God accepted it with such a reservation, the 
mere supposition of which is shocking. 

" Covetousness " is another of the sins Mr. 
Wesley says is in the hearts of all mere justi- 
fied believers. Covetousness is not the desire 
to possess the necessities and even the comforts 
of life. For this opinion we have the highest 
authority. 

Mark x, 29-30: *'And Jesus answered and 
said: Verily, I say unto you, there is no man 
that hath left house, or brethren, or sister, or 
father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, 



Treatise on Sanctification. 149 

for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall 
receive a hundred-fold now in this time, houses, 
and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and 
children, and lands, with persecutions, and in 
the world to come eternal life," 

The holiest saint may therefore earnestly 
desire all these, and when he prays for them, 
his faith rests on the veracity of Jesus for their 
bestowment. There is a sense in which co vet- 
ousness, although an active principle of the 
mind and heart, may be indulged, and the indi- 
vidual not only remain innocent but commend- 
able. Hence Paul says: ** Covet, therefore, 
earnestly the best gifts." This honors God by 
acknowledging the infinitude of his resources, 
and willingness to supply all the wants of his 
saints; but if a man earnestly desires and prays 
for the possessions of his neighbor, it shows he 
does not love his neighbor as himself, for 
" love worketh no ill to its neighbor; " and this 
disposition would selfishly impoverish him. 
He who does this, sins against God and his 
neighbor both, and violates the last command- 
ment in the Decalogue: Ex. xx, 17: *'Thou 
shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor his 



150 T^^ Old Paths. 

wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, 
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy 
neighbor's." 

Paul designates it idolatry — " covetousness, 
which is idolatry." Sinful covetousness, there- 
fore, is a desire to possess anything belonging 
to a man's neighbor without paying an equiva- 
lent for it, no matter how small the value of 
the thing, but does not go so far as to possess it; 
to do this would be the violation of another 
commandment: " Thou shalt not steal." We 
see from this that covetousness, which is a 
desire of the heart, cannot exist unless the 
heart yields to it; the desire is the covetous- 
ness, and this is sin, and to talk about an inac- 
tive desire is absurd, and therefore false. 

Mr. Wesley also says a believer, if he is 
only justified, has the love of the world in his 
heart; but Jesus says: ''If any man love the 
world, the love of the Father is not in him." 

He also says justified believers are ''lovers 
of pleasure more than lovers of God;" but 
Paul says, that " lovers of pleasure only have 
the form of godliness, but deny the power 
thereof," and warns Christians to "turn away 



Treatise on Sanctification, J 51 

from such." Such, therefore, are not justified 
believers. From this review, is it not perfectly 
evident that those who have these sins in their 
hearts, are not justified believers, but sinners 
against God ? They may have been backsliders 
** who departed from the living God;" or they 
may have never known the way. In either 
case it is the same, and there is not a passage 
of Scripture which can be produced, which 
declares any man having any of these sins in 
his heart in any degree, is in a justified state, 
or that he is a justified believer, or that he is a 
believer at alL 

It must be distinguished between a tempta- 
tion to covetousness and covetousness itself. 
If so tempted, the man has time to deliberate 
after the suggestion is made to his mind; time 
for instance, to reflect thus: If I were in my 
neighbor's place, would I be willing he should 
take my property without compensation; if not, 
how can I thus desire his without the infringe- 
ment of the golden rule; besides God says 
"thou shalt not covet," and to do it, would be 
to incur his displeasure. His heart now revolts 
at the thought, and has no desire for that 



152 ^^^ 0^^ Paths. 

which belongs to another, or to obtain it in 
any dishonest manner; he '' resists the devil 
and he flees from him/' and in the contest 
remains pure and uncontaminated. Jesus him- 
self was in all points tempted as we are, and 
he also reasoned with the tempter, and yet 
without sin. 

That under the temptation, a man has time 
to deliberate before he becomes in the least 
infected by sin, the following passage fully 
proves: James i, 14, 15: ''But every man is 
tempted, when he is drawn away of his own 
lust, and enticed, then when lust hath con- 
ceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin when it 
is finished, bringeth forth death." This is no 
peculiar temptation, but the general principle, 
that of every man's temptation, to whom it is 
presented, conducted and consummated. A man 
is enticed by a suggestion from satan, or from 
any other source, to dishonestly possess him- 
self of something belonging to another; thus 
far, it is not his sin, but that of the tempter. 
He now reflects upon the principle of unrighte- 
ousness involved in it, and considers the conse- 
quences, but if he has no desire to perpetrate 



Treatise on Sanctification, J 53 

the act, and a desire can only result from reflec- 
tion, and repels the suggestion, he is still 
innocent. But, if after thus reflecting, he feels 
a desire or lust to thus wrong his neighbor, it 
is the conception of sin (the sin of covetous- 
ness), and when the sin is finished, death is the 
consequence, but the heart of such a man, if 
he thus resists, remains as pure and holy as it 
is possible for man to be in the present life, 
being in that condition only in which he is 
susceptible, because human, of yielding to 
temptation. Another condition of the heart 
of a believer, according to Mr. Wesley, **is 
that of carnal mindedness, and a love of all 
evil." 

We confess, that even to write these words 
seems horrible, for even the devil himself can 
have no worse heart than to be in love with all 
evil^ and especially that such is the heart of 
every justified believer. 

We cannot but suspect the heart of any man 
who honestly and intelligently makes such 
assertions. A man can only say this from 
observation and experience, and as it relates to 
the condition of the hearts of others, which 



154 ^^^ Old Paths. 

may never go so far as to be manifested in 
acts; therefore, no man can thus judge of others. 
Of course, he must know whether it was the 
condition of his own heart when he was first 
justified, or when he supposed he was, but 
unless we disregard all the teachings of Jesus 
and the apostles, relative to the state of the 
heart when God first received it, we cannot but 
conclude, either that Mr. Wesley was never 
justified, or that such was not the state of his 
heart at that event, the latter opinion being 
the only one upon which we are able to account 
for his representations of the hearts of all jus- 
tified believers, and especially his own, and 
indeed, this was the only heart of which he 
was capable of judging correctly, for none but 
God knows what is in the heart, unless it mani- 
fests itself in the fruits, and we cannot believe 
that such was the condition of his heart when 
God converted it, and if all, or any of these 
sins were found in it at any time after his con- 
version, it is positive proof that he had become 
backslidden in heart. *'As he had received 
Christ Jesus the Lord, he had ceased to walk 
in him.'' 



Treatise on Sanctification. |55 

ThisS text, by the way, overthrows his whole 
theory, for it sets up the condition of the 
heart when it first received Christ Jesus, the 
Lord, which was conversion, as the standard 
to be maintained through life. *^As ye have 
received him, so ^valk ye in himJ'' If when ye 
received Christ into your hearts, ye were not 
sanctified, but were left ijnpure and unholy in 
heart, then so walk ye in him^ so remain through 
all life's journey, with unclean and unsanctified 
hearts. But if Paul did not teach such revolt- 
ing sentiments as these, he must have taught 
the opposite ones, namely, ''As ye have received 
Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in him,'' 
which language could only have been applica- 
ble to sanctified human nature, "50 walk ye in 
him^'' look for no higher standard of purity; 
if you ever stray from this, " repent and do the 
first works over again.''^ You may forever 
grow in grace, but not out of sin; this is the 
work of God's translating power, but when in 
grace, then grow on in it, and in the knowledge 
of Christ forever. Eternity will never enable 
a man to comprehend the great character of 
Christ, but this is not growing in purity; when 



156 T^^ 0^^ Paths. 

God changes the heart, "• old things pass away, 
and all things become new." 

It is possible that Mr. Wesley's theory of 
the being of sin deceived himself, supposing as 
he did, it to be a personal abstraction, a being 
who might be in the heart as food is in the 
stomach, susceptible of being enthroned or 
dethroned, bound with chains, or loosed. 

In support of the assumption that all mere 
justified believers have carnal minds, Mr. 
Wesley quotes a part of the following Scrip- 
ture: 1 Cor. iii, 1-3: "And I, brethren, could 
not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto 
carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have 
fed you with milk, and not with meat, for 
hitherto ye were not able to bear it; neither 
yet now are ye able; for are ye not carnal? 
For whereas there is among you envying and 
strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk 
as men ? For while one saith, I am of Paul, 
and another, I am of ApoUos, are ye not car- 
nal?" In regard to this carnal-mindedness, 
we remark that it was not an innocent condition 
of the heart, as assumed by Mr. Wesley, and 
that it existed, but did not reign — was there 



Treatise on Sanctification. 157 

simply as a dethroned king, bound in chains, 
but was there according to the philosophy of 
Jesus, thus: " Out of the abundance of the 
heart the mouth speaketh." 

There was envying, divisions and strife among 
them, thus were they carnal. The carnality 
did not silently exist in their hearts, but showed 
itself openly among them, which called out the 
rebuke of the apostle: "Are ye not carnal 
and walk as men (other men, sinners)? " 

Mr. Wesley says: " There does still remain, 
even in them that are justified, a mind which 
is in some measure carnal, so the apostle tells 
even the believers at Corinth; '' and then goes 
on to call it a propensity to pride, self-will, 
anger, revenge, love of the world, and all 
evil. But he only quotes from this letter as 
far as was conveuient to make out a theory. 

Paul does not charge these Corinthians with 
having a propensity of heart to envy, strife 
and divisions, but that they were carnal, because 
they committed these sins. 

James defines them thus, iii, 14-16: '^But 
if ye have bitter envying and strife in your 
hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth; 



158 ^^^ ^^^ Paths. 

this wisdom descendeth not from above, but is 
earthly, sensual, devilish; for where envying 
and strife is, there is confusion and every evil 
work." 

It is very plain to see from this that the car- 
nal mind in these professors was not an evil 
propensity, but meant those evil works which 
originated from beneath, and were sensual, 
earthly and devilish, and not simply "propen- 
sities/' 

Another remark we wish here to make is, 
that the whole church of Corinth were not 
thus carnal; some were, while others were 
spiritual; some were perfect, some were sanc- 
tified, to whom reference is thus made: Chap- 
ter ii, 6: "Howbeit we speak wisdom among 
them that are perfect? " Chapter i, 30: " But 
of him are ye in Christ Jesus^ who of God is 
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctifica- 
tion and redemption." Chapter i, 7-8: ^'Even 
as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, 
so that ye came behind in no gift, waiting for 
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall 
also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be 
blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." 



Treatise on Sanctification. 159 

From these various passages of the same letter, 
can anything be more evident than that there 
were two classes in the church at Corinth, as 
there always were, and are, in every church, 
even when composed of the twelve apostles it 
had in it, a profane and lying Peter, and a car- 
nal minded Judas. 

If Mr. Wesley had conceived and acknow- 
ledged this fact, in regard to the Corinthian 
church, he would have found no evidence in 
this letter for his theory of carnal hearted and 
yet justified believers. 

It is also conclusive from the meaning of the 
words "• carnal minded," that in no degree can 
it exist in the heart of a justified child of God. 
That if it exists, it must be active; this action 
is sin against God, and classifies its subjects as 
God's enemies. 

In regard to the meaning of the words of 
Scripture, we uttterly repudiate the idea of 
appealing to dictionary makers, human render- 
ings, original mapuscripts or other translations, 
than our own Bible as we have it now in Eng- 
lish. There is not an idea God ever revealed 
to man nesessary for his perfect understanding 



160 ^^^ Old Paths, 

of the purposes of the Deity with the race but 
what it contains. 

We hold that it has been as absolutely neces- 
sary for the interference of the author of the 
Bible, when it was to undergo translation in 
order to preserve it pure and uncorrupted, as 
to first inspire the prophets to write it. This 
is especially true of the words themselves. 

Words are signs of ideas, and the words of 
Scripture are the signs of God^s ideas, which 
express his will concerning man. If, therefore, 
men may change these words^ so as to make 
them convey other ideas, in any degree differ- 
ent, signifying less or more, then in the same 
degree God^s ideas are changed, and the Bible 
ceases to be an inspired revelation of the will 
of God to man. 

In a word, he has abandoned his word, after 
having been engaged more than four thousand 
years in inspiring men to write it, to the mere 
cupidity, bigotry and ignorance of men. A 
mere human author, having a copyright to a 
book, would never suffer another to change and 
corrupt it, and then palm it on the world as 
the original, without protest and rebuke; and 



Treatise on Sanctification. 161 

is it not monstrous to suppose God can thus 
submit his great book, containing the rule of 
the last great judgment, to be so corrupted 
and changed that it could not be used for the 
purpose? No; the very thought is terrible to 
contemplate. 

Jesus says: **Not a jot or tittle shall in any- 
wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.'^ 
And can a jot or tittle any more pass from the 
prophesies which *'came not by the will of 
men, but were written by holy men of God, 
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost? " 

Paul puts it thus: 1 Cor. ii, 12-13: *^ Now 
we have received not the spirit of the world, 
but the spirit which is of God, that we might 
know the things which are freely given to us 
of God, which things also we speak, not in the 
words which man^s wisdom teacheth, but which 
the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual 
things with spiritual." 

It is true there are what purports to be ver- 
sions of the Scriptures, whose words are not 
exactly alike, and which convey different mean- 
ings. Such is what is called the Douay Bible, 
or that sanctioned by the Roman Catholic 
11 



162 ^-^^ Old Paths, 

Church. But in our opinion it is too corrupt, 
ever to come into general use. It is appropri- 
ate enough for that corrupt church, who has 
very little use for a Bible, if any, indeed, which 
would prefer that there were none, at least 
since the '^ holy fathers '' died, whose doctrines 
constitute the infallible sentiments of the 
Romish church, which has '^ chosen to believe 
a lie, and to have pleasure in unrighteousness." 

When it became necessary by the progress 
of the Reformation to have the Bible correctly 
translated, God, its author, had the great coun- 
cil under the order of King James, assembled, 
through whose instrumentality he blessed the 
world with the uncorrupted Bible. 

To illustrate our idea: suppose the Mormons 
should translate the Bible, and make it teach 
their doctrines. They might succeed, but the 
production would be confined to that corrupt 
body. 

Suppose the Baptists should translate the 
Bible, and substitute the word immersion for 
that of baptism, the book would forever be 
confined to that sect, and only the most bigoted, 
and therefore, the most ignorant among th^m^ 



Treatise on Sanctification. 163 

would have any more reverence for it than for 
any other human production. 

Suppose the Methodist church should trans- 
late the Bible, and make the word sanctifica- 
tion mean to purify and cleanse from sin a por- 
tion, but a very small one, would receive it, biit 
it could never come into general use, even 
among ourselves. 

A natural inference from this is, that when 
it is necessary to appeal to other versions and 
original manuscripts to establish any theory, 
or prove any doctrine, that doctrine or theory 
is an error; and in every case when a man is 
heard to appeal to these in support of any 
opinion, that opinion or idea has a phase of 
meaning not only not taught in the Bible, but 
contrary to it. 

Indeed, such a course supposes every man 
to have the right to translate the Bible, or to 
make one to suit himself, and which also implies 
our Bible corrupt, and that any man can make 
a purer one, and therefore, that God has no 
Bible at all, but a corrupt one, and of course, 
of which he cannot be the author. What can 
be greater presumption ? 



164 ^^^ Old Paths. 

We return again to the question, as to what 
we are to understand by the words *^to be 
carnally minded?" Rom. viii, 6, 7: *'For to 
be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritu- 
ally minded is life and peace; because the 
carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is 
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed 
can be." 

This was the condition of those whom Paul 
personates in the seventh chapter, 14, 15: 
'' For we know the law is spiritual, but I am 
carnal, sold under sin, for that which I do I 
allow not; for what I would, that I do not^ 
but what I hate that do I." 

This definition of carnality forbids the idea 
that it is something which may exist in the 
heart, in a passive and inoperative condition^ 
because it is itself, an active principle or feel- 
ing, and that feeling ^' is enmity against God/^ 
It follows, therefore, that if there is no enmity 
felt against God in the heart, there is no 
carnal mind there, because the carnal mind 
is a feeling, and that feeling ^^is enmity 
against God^'' and can anything be more absurd 
than the supposition that enmity against God, 



Treatise on Sanctification. lg5 

one of the strongest passions of the human 
spirit, and which is onlj^ another phrase to 
express the carnal mind itself, can exist in the 
heart, as Mr. Wesley says it does at conversion, 
and the individual not know it, and also that 
it can thus exist, and not reign and govern its 
possessor ? 

There may be degrees of its intensity, some 
may have minds more bitterly at enmity against 
God than others, but in the precise degree in 
which it exists, it is a feeling, and feeling is emo- 
tion, activity^ and that feeling is ^^ enmity against 
God." Such, therefore, is the definition of the 
carnal mind, if Paul is to be taken as authority 
in preference to Mr. Wesley, or any other 
man. It is due to him to say that he avoids 
its definition thus given. If there is a sentence 
composed of the same number of words, capa- 
ble of describing as bad and wicked a mind ajs 
this, we care not whether it is that of man or 
devil, we are utterly unable from the vocabu- 
lary to select them, '* The carnal mind is 
enmity against God.''^ 

Let it be understood, therefore, that if the 
views of Mr. Wesley are correct, every new 



166 ^^^ Old Paths. 

born soul has in his heart, and that is the most 
hateful plaee in the sight of God to have it, 
""^ emmty against God.^^ 

Not that he may commit some abominable 
act, ignorantly or in a passion, under severe 
provocation, but the enmity is abiding in his 
heart, and not only so, but its malignity is not 
turned simply against his brother, which God 
holds to be equal to murder, "For he that 
hateth his brother is a murderer." But the 
enmity is against God himself, the God of love 
and mercy, who has just manifested himself as 
such, in gi^aciously pardoning and absolving 
the guilty wretch from all his sins, and in 
return receives the enmity of his heart against 
himself. God said to him, " Son give me thy 
heart," but he has reserved a part of it, in 
which enmity against God may live. O! God, 
how can man charge thee with being the author 
of such horrid doctrine ? But Paul also says: 
''The carnal mind is not subject to the law of 
God." Therefore, every young convert, accord- 
ing to Mr. Wesley, has a mind which is only in 
part subject to the law of God, and of course, 
the other part is in rebellion against him. 



Treatise on Sanctification, 167 

The proposition God makes to a sinner is: 
^* In the day thou seekest me with all thy heart, 
I will be found of thee." But here are sinners 
who have sought him with only a part of the 
heart, or if they sought him with all the heart, 
he only received a part. In either case the 
sinner maintains to some extent, the carnal 
mind, and to that extent has a mind ^* not sub- 
ject to the l^w of God." 

Is it not evident from this, that if God is 
found of such hearts, he must materially modify 
this condition of reception, which would then 
read: In the day thou seekest me with part of 
thy heart, I will be found of thee, and if you 
seek me with all your heart, I will accept in 
that day only a part; I propose to leave a part 
of it still in a state of enmity against myself, 
and of insubordination to my reign and laws. 
But this is not all of the apostle's description 
of this dreadful state of mind, for he also says: 
The carnal mind is not only not subject to the 
law of God, but declares it cannot be, *^ neither 
indeed can be." 

God can convert a covetous heart, and sanctify 
it, by setting it apart for himself, so that it 



168 The Old Paths. 

will cease to covet its neighbor's property, and 
covet that only which belongs to God, and 
which he has promised to bestow; thus, "' covet 
earnestly, therefore, the best gifts/' 

He can take a jealous heart and convert it 
without destroying it, by turning that feeling 
into holy exercise, ^'A godly jealousy," But 
the carnal mind is of such a satanic composi- 
tion, that there is no purpose to which infinite 
wisdom can appropriate it; its nature is so hate- 
ful, audacious and ungovernable that God can- 
not make it subservient to his will and law. 
** The carnal mind is not subject to the law of 
God, neither, indeed can be^ And yet, accord- 
ing to Mr. Wesley, this terrible principle in 
some degree is in the heart of every child of 
God, even from the moment of conversion, 
which is the condition of the hearts of all 
merely justified believers, and he qualifies this 
by declaring them to be ^*in love with all 
eviL" In proof of this, he appeals to the follow- 
ing passage: ^'The flesh lusteth against the 
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh," in 
the various forms in which it occurs in the 
wi'itings of Paul, maintaining that it expresses 



Treatise on Sanctification, 169 

the condition of all mere justified believers, 
but we think it has no reference to Christian 
experience. 



170 ^^^ Old Paths. 



CHAPTEE VIIL 

CONTINUATION OP THE SAME SUBJECT. 

His peroration upon this subject is as follows: 
'*The sum of all this is, there are in every 
person, even after he is justified, two contrary 
principles, nature and grace, termed by St. 
Paul, the flesh and the spirit; hence, although 
even babes in Christ are sanctified, yet it is 
only in part; in a degree, according to the 
measure of their faith, they are spiritual; yet 
in a degree they are carnal.'^ 

The doctrine indicated by the passage, *' The 
spirit lusteth against the flesh, and the flesh 
against the spirit," is contained in PauVs letter 
to the Galatians, but instead of teaching Mr. 
Wesley's idea, presents the contrast between 
Judaism and Christianity. Hence says the 
apostle, ^'I am afraid of you, lest I have 
bestowed upon you labor in vain;'' ^' Whoso- 
ever of you are justified by the law, ye are 
fallen from grace;" -'0! foolish Galatians, who 



Treatise on Sanctification, 17 1 

hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey 
the truth ?" 

** This only would I learn of you, received 
ye the spirit by the works of the law, or by 
the hearing of faith? Having began in the 
spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh ? 
How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly 
elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in 
bondage ?" 

** Where is the blessedness ye spake of, for 
I bear you record, that if it had been possible, 
you would* have plucked out your own eyes, 
and have given them to me. Have I become 
your enemy because I tell you the truth ? My 
little children of whom I travail in birth again 
until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be 
present with you now, and to change my voice, 
for I stand in doubt of you. Tell me ye that 
desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the 
law? For it is written, that Abraham had 
two sons, the one by a bond-maid, the other 
by a free woman, but he who was of the bond- 
woman was born after the flesh; and he of the 
free woman was by promise, which things are 
an allegory; for these are the two covenants, 



1Y2 ^-^^ Old Paths, 

the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to 
bondage, which is Haga, for this Haga is Mount 
Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, 
which now is, and is in bondage with her 
children; but Jerusalem which is above, is 
free, which is the mother of us alL Now, we 
brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of 
promise, but as then, he that was born after 
the fleshy persecuted him that was born of the 
spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what 
saith the Scriptures: Cast out the bond- woman 
and her son; for the son of the bond- woman shall 
not be heir with the son of the free woman. 

"' So, then, brethren, we are not the children 
of the bond- woman, but of the free; stand fast, 
therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath 
made us free, and be not entangled again in 
the yoke of bondage; for brethren, ye have 
been called unto liberty, only use not liberty 
for an occBsion to the flesh, but by love serve 
one another, for all the law is fulfilled in one 
word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself ; but if ye bite and devour one 
another, take heed that ye be not consumed 
one of another. 



Treatise on Sanctification, 173 

^* This I say, then, walk in the spirit, and ye 
shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, for the 
flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit 
against the flesh; and these are contrary, the 
one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things 
that ye would, for if ye be led by the spirit, 
ye are not under the law." Rom. viii: ** There 
is, therefore, now no condemnation to them 
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after 
the flesh but after the spirit, for they that are 
in the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, 
but they that are after the spirit, the things of 
the spirit; for to be carnally minded is death, 
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, 
because the carnal mind is enmity against God; 
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither 
indeed can be; so then they that are in the 
flesh cannot please God; but ye are not in the 
flesh, but in the spirit; therefore, brethren, 
we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after 
the flesh, for if ye live after the flesh ye shall 
die." 

In his letter to the Galatians, the apostle 
describes the fruits of Judaism, and those of 
Christianity the fruits of the spirit, and con- 



174 The Old Paths. 

trasts them thus: '' Now the works of the flesh 
are manifest; which are these: Adultery, for- 
nication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, 
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations^ wrath, 
strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, 
drunkenness, revelings, and such like, of the 
which, I tell you, as I have told you in time 
past, that they w^hich do such things shall not 
inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of 
the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, 
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tempe- 
rance; against such there is no law, and they 
that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with 
the affections and lusts." 

From these passages can anything be more 
evident than that those who are here described 
as being in the flesh, walking in the flesh, lust- 
ing after the flesh, and bearing the fruits of 
the flesh, who cannot please God, and who, 
therefore, shall die, are either Jews or back- 
slidden Christians, who again desired to be 
under the law of Moses ? And even if Chris- 
tians are here meant, who lust after the flesh, 
which cannot be true, for Paul says, ^^ye 
brethren are not after the flesh," still it affords 



Treatise on Sanctification, J75 

no proof in support of Mr. Wesley's doctrine, 
that such is the condition of the heart of all 
justified believers, and that, too, from the 
moment of their justification, because the 
apostle charges these as being in a backslidden 
state, with ^'having so soon departed from 
the gospel of Christ; '^ with having begun 
in the spirit, but desiring to be made perfect 
by the flesh (the law), they had become 
*^bewitched,'' and had ^'fallen from grace;'' 
thus had they become babes, and had lost their 
new birth condition, and with whom the 
apostle was under the necessity of again travail- 
ing with them in birth, till Christ should again 
be formed within them. 

How preposterous that these backsliders, 
whose hearts now lusted against the spirit of 
Christ, who had turned again to the weak and 
beggarly elements (the law which had been 
the schoolmaster to bring them to Christ), 
under whose bondage they again desired to 
be, and to whom, in consequence, "Christ had 
become of none efiect." We say that to hold 
up such as examples, illustrative of the hearts 
of all justified believers, is simply preposterous. 



176 The Old Paths. 

We have now shown that all the passages 
and expressions of Scripture which Mr. Wes- 
ley adduces in defence of his doctrine of sin 
in believers, utterly fails of accomplishing that 
purpose. Indeed, there is not a passage in the 
whole Bible in which God, Christ, the Holy 
Ghost or the apostles, utters any complaint, or 
finds the least fault with any saint who had 
preserved his Christian character as pure as it 
was when God first received him, and who had 
not committed actual transgression after his 
conversion. 

Neither is it once said that there remained in 
any such heart the least sin of any kind, at 
the time of such reception or conversion; and is 
it possible a doctrine can be true which is not 
taught positively in a single text; and depends 
wholly upon inference, the unjustifiableness 
of which we have clearly seen? In addition 
to this, we hold there is not a passage in which 
the standard of Christian purity is held up, but 
that it is the condition of the heart, when it 
came first from the recreative hand of God, 
who never did anything imperfect. Its lan- 
guage is, '* Where is the blessedness ye speak 



Treatise on Sanctification. 177 

of?" Paul does not tell them that their hearts 
had been bad from the first, only they did not 
know it, and that they should have gone on 
from that point, and obtained the second bless- 
ing; then and not till then, would their hearts 
have been cleansed from all filthiness of the 
flesh; not a word of this is heard; but on the 
contrary, they had become again entangled 
with the yoke of bondage; again had they 
become contaminated by falling from their 
original state of gracious blessedness. 

This passage describing the hearts of those 
who lusted against the spirit, and the spirit 
against the flesh, showing the two contrary 
principles in the hearts of all mere justified 
believers, as Mr. Wesley construes it, is the 
strongest one upon which he depends for the 
defence of his theory; but as we have seen, it 
describes those who were declared by the 
apostle to have fallen from grace, and hence 
the wickedness of those hearts; it utterly fails 
to furnish the least proof of his doctrine, 
neither does it furnish any for the idea that 
Buch feelings and desires can be in the heart 
of any Christian for a moment, and he be just 
12 



178 ^-^^ Old Paths. 

in the sight of God. That a heart can be 
justified or just in the estimation of God, and 
yet lust against Christ, is simply blasphemy. 

The fault God found with the church of 
Ephesus, was not that they had not progressed 
in holiness and purity and became more so 
from the time of their conversion, but on the 
contrary that they had left their first love; 
this was the standard therefore to which they 
were required to return: " repent, and do the 
first works over again.'' If they had these sins 
in their heart, it remained for Mr. Wesley to 
discover and teach that they were justified 
believers, and as such were sure of heaven. 

That sin can be in the heart, and not mani- 
fest itself in words and acts, is not only con- 
trary to its nature, but also to the philosophy 
as clearly taught by Christ concerning it. 

Mat vii, 16-20: '' Ye shall know them by 
their fruits; do men gather grapes of thorns, 
or figs of thistles? even so every good tree 
bringeth forth good fruit, and a corrupt tree 
bringeth forth evil fruit; a good tree can not 
bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt 
tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that 



Treatise on Sanctification. 179 

bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, 
and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their 
fruits ye shall know them." Chapter xii, 33- 
35: ^'Either make the tree good, and his fruit 
good, or else make the tree corrupt and his 
fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by his fruit. 
O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, 
speak good things? For out of the abundance 
of the heart the mouth speaketh." 

** A good man out of the good treasure of 
his heart bringeth forth good things; but an 
evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth 
evil things." James iii, 11, 12: ^'Doth a foim- 
tain send forth at the same place sweet water 
and bitter? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear 
olive berries? Either a vine figs? So can no 
fountain both yield salt water and fresh." 

In these concurrent passages we have the 
unmistakable doctrines taught, that what a man 
is in heart he will be in life; if his heart is 
corrupt, it will necessarily bring forth corrupt 
fruit, as surely as that a bitter fountain will 
taint all the waters flowing from it. The 
degree of bitterness in the fountain in order 
to produce this result does not come into the 



180 Ts^ Old Paths. 

illustration; but as in nature, so in grace^ 
the least degree of bitterness in the fountain 
taints all the waters flowing from it, teaching 
that the heart cannot be corrupt, in the least 
degree, and not manifest that corruption in 
corresponding words and actions; hence sin or 
depravity can not be in the heart of a justified 
believer. Neither can the heart be both cor- 
rupt and pure at the same time, part of each. 
" Doth a fountain send forth bitter and sweet 
water at the same place V^ *' Therefore, make 
the heart good (not a part of it), and the fruit 
will be good." Can Jesus leave a sinner's 
heart, which he ha^ promised to make new, 
partly cori'upt, unless he belies his own gospel 
as here set forth? These are teachings coming 
from the great master himself, with which the 
idea is utterly irreconcilable, that a heart can 
be partly pure and partly impure at the same 
time, and especially that it can be such when 
Jesus first translates it into the kingdom. 

The only way in which a heart can become 
corrupt after being once purified, is illustrated 
by Christ in the same chapter, thus: ^' When 
the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he (the 



Treatise on Sanctifi cation. igj 

unclean spirit) walketh through dry places 
seeking rest, and findeth none.'' Then he saith, 
**I will return into my house, from whence I 
came out, and when he is come he findeth it 
empty, swept and garnished (he did not find 
any filthiness of the flesh or spirit there), therf 
goeth he, and taketh with him seven other 
spirits more wicked than himself, and they 
enter in and dwell there; and the last state of 
that man is worse than the first." 

This is further illustrated in the 28th and 
29th verses: *^But if I cast out devils by the 
spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is 
come unto you, or else how can one enter into 
a strong man's house and spoil his goods, 
except he first bind the strong man, and then 
he will spoil his house? " According to the 
doctrine, that a part of all sin (the goods of 
Satan) remains in the hearts of all believers 
from the moment of their conversion, Christ 
should have said it is true, I enter into the house 
** where satan dwelleth," and bind him with 
chains, but do not cast him out, although I 
have taught that *'I cast out devils by the 
spirit of God," I leave him to occupy one 



182 ^-^^ Old Paths. 

corner, and I take up my abode in the other; 
and the sentiment, "how can two walk 
together except they be agreed," is false. I 
have power to cast out satan by the spirit of 
God, proving that the kingdom of God is 
come, for surelj^ if I can bind him in fetters I 
can do the easier work of casting him out, and 
if it is morally consistent for me to bind the 
strong man, it must be also to cast him out; 
but I have too much respect for satan and his 
goods to deal thus harshly, and I have but 
little respect for the house itself; this I do not 
empty of sin, satan^s goods, nor sweep nor 
garnish it; I leave it partly unsanctified and 
filthy. The binding of satan and the spoiling 
of his goods, means preserving some of them, 
and only keeping the others down for a time 
at least, and thus I deceive the man, in leaving 
him to suppose they are all destroyed and the 
house garnished. I will in a little time let 
loose the whole troop, and so far unchain them 
that they will make a dreadful stii' in the house, 
and a horrid warfare will again commence 
where all was peace. I have no particular 
object in this, and some are even ruined by it, 



Treatise on Sanctification, 183 

but such is my policy, though it is positively 
contrary to my revealed word. The deaf and 
dumb devil whom I have just cast out, and which 
event called out the sayings regarding the 
casting out of satan, the spoliation of his goods, 
and the garnkhing the house wherein he dwelt, 
was a perfect cure. I did not leave the man 
deaf in one ear, or partly so in both, nor partly 
dumb, which I should have done if I intended 
to teach the doctrine of sin in all believers' 
hearts from the time I attempt to effect a moral 
cure. 

We turn from this dreadful picture, this 
monstrous sentiment, relieved to know that 
from our Lord came no such word or act; he 
never cured a man, in whom he did not imme- 
diately effect a perfect cure, and he never 
changed the heart of a sinner, but it was a 
perfect change. If he gives a new heart, it is 
no patch on the old garment; he never puts 
the new wine of the kingdom into other than 
new bottles; he makes the tree good^ and the 
good fruit grows naturally thereon; he cleanses 
the bitter from the fountain, and from it flows 
naturally the sweet water. 



184 ^-^^ Old Paths. 

We assume here, that it is the normal con- 
dition of man to be thus in harmony and 
fellowship with God. The introduction of sin 
into the world philosophically and scripturally, 
accounts for the existing estrangement and 
moral antagonism between man and his maker^ 
which the gospel alone has power to remedy. 
It, therefore, originated with the God of crea- 
tion. We propose here to show what is meant 
by loving God with all the heart. 

In order to do this, one of two things is 
necessary: First, to love God to the exclusion 
of every one else; or secondlj^, to love him 
supremely, or above everything or being else. 
That the first of these propositions cannot be 
true, is shown by the fact that in one of the 
great commandments, '^ upon which hang all the 
law and the prophets," God enjoins the solemn 
duty on those who love him with all the heart 
of loving their neighbors also. " Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
thy neighbor as thyself." Therefore, it is cer- 
tain that to love God with all the heart, is not 
to love him exclusively; and it follows that our 



Treatise on Sanctificatiok. 185 

siecond proposition — to love him supremely — 
must be correct. 

This truth we find, like every other doctrine 
of the Bible, so beautifully, forcibly and per- 
fectly presented by the great teacher himself, 
that leaves no room for honest doubt as to its 
signification. Mat. x, 37: *^He that loveth 
father or mother more than me, is not worthy 
of me; and he that loveth son or daughter 
more than me is not worthy of me." There 
are other tests by which men may know whether 
they love God thus perfectly or supremely, or 
with all their heart; for on the authority of 
Jesus, we consider the position established that 
to love God with all the heart, is to love him 
supremely, nothing more or less. 

One of these tests is, that those who thus 
love God, receive the teachings of Christ in 
preference to those of men, when there is dis- 
agreement; to such the sayings of Jesus, or 
his words, which were not his own, but the 
Father's, which sent him, are the standard of 
appeal in the settlement of all doctrines. ''He 
that loveth me keepeth my words, and my 
Father will love him. He that hath my 



Ig6 The Old Paths. 

commandments and keepeth them, he it is that 
loveth me." To give a practical illustration, 
let us suppose a man investigates the arguments 
here presented, and becomes convinced that 
the doctrine taught by Jesus and the apostles 
is, that no sin remains in the heart of justified 
believers at and after their conversion, unless 
they backslide. Now, notwithstanding this, 
the man still determines to adhere to the theory 
of Mr. Wesley to the contrary, can such a man 
be said to receive the words of Christ and 
believe them in preference to those of Wesley ? 
and as men are sanctified and kept pure by the 
belief of those words, "sanctify them through 
thy truth," "now ye are clean through the 
words which I have spoken unto you," can 
they be clean or sanctified by the disbelief and 
rejection of those words? which they do by 
receiving those of men as entitled to the greatest 
authority. 

It is no wonder such a heart has in it all the 
sins which Mr. Wesley, unfortunately, makes 
the inbred inheritance of all mere justified 
believers. No marvel that such a heart, in its 
bigotry, which is the result of its education 



Treatise on Sanctification. 187 

received since conversion, has the carnal mind, 
and a ^* spirit lusting against Christ," enmity 
against God, manifestly in a state of subjection 
to the opinions of men, and not subject to the 
law (or words) of God. His heart revolts at 
the teachings of Jesus; he hates them by pre- 
fering those of men, or his own preconceived 
opinions, if he ever dare entertain any, which 
he did not receive from his standard authors. 
Question these, and his spirit rises up to crush 
the opposition, though it comes armed "with 
the whole panoply of God; " he calls to his 
aid, if he have the influence and power, church 
excommunications, and the anti-Christian spirit 
of persecution. 

Those whose arguments he is utterly unable 
to meet, he adopts the easier course, and 
denounces them as heretics; they must be 
*' rebuked," he cries. That Satan, after having 
been once exorcised, has again entered such a 
heart and mind, there can be no question. In 
his first love he had none of this bitter spirit; 
he then received the words of Jesus as truth 
which he could easily understand, but he has 
had another education, and a sectarian one 



188 "^^^ 0^^ Paths. 

since, hence his spirit and his words, like the 
Galatians, he has become bewitched by error. 
But thank God the day is past when such 
efforts can crush the truth; intelligent Chris- 
tianity appeals now to the highest authority, 
and the man who appeals to commentators, 
even in Sabbath school Bible classes, becomes 
the subject of severe criticism. *' What saith 
the Scriptures? " is the inquiry. To attempt, 
therefore, to crush out this intelligent and 
independent thought of the age, is to engender 
skepticism and infidelity, and cannot succeed; 
and all such efforts coming from whatever 
source, only exhibits the weakness and igno- 
rance of those who exemplify them. He who 
dares not think for himself is a mere servile 
slave to the opinions of others, and should 
have been born in the tenth century. It needs 
no proof that such do not love God with all 
their heart, and yet it is this very class, more 
than any other, who make this exclusive pro- 
fession of reverence for human opinion. K 
we appeal to the Bible, it is just as easy to 
show that all young converts love God with 
all their heart, as that they love him at all. 



Treatise on Sanctification. 189 

To determine this, John furnishes us with 
another test, that of fear: ^* There is no fear in 
love; he that feareth is not made perfect in 
love; fear hath torment." From these words 
it is clear that those who have been delivered 
from tormenting fear have been made perfect 
in love; and was it ever known that a newly 
converted child of God had tormenting fear 9 
Indeed, was it ever known that any Christian, 
unless he had become a willful transgressor of 
the authority of God, had tormenting fear, and 
felt that it would be a fearful thing for him to 
*^fall into the hands of the living God?" 
^' Fear hath torment, but perfect love casteth 
out all fear," hence every Christian who has 
not backslidden, and who has no tormenting 
fear, has perfect love, and loves God with all 
his heart; but no man can say this if he has 
left his first love, and has not repented and 
done the first works over again. No man can 
say he loves God with all his heart who has 
ceased to abide in Christ, and to walk in him 
as he received him, unless he has *^ returned 
again to the shepherd and bishop of his soul," 
and by his blood been again cleansed from the 



190 2^-^^ Old Paths. 

effe€ts of his apostacy. Jesus said to him: 
'^ Now ye are clean through the words which I 
have spoken unto you/' but he wandered, and 
has come back, and is again purified as at first. 
"He has now been delivered from an evil 
heart of unbelief in departing from the living 
God," showing that this evil heart was the 
result of the departing from God, or of leaving 
his first love, and is not, as Mr. Wesley con- 
tends, the normal condition of the heart of all 
merely justified believers. 

Mr. Wesley attributes the doctrine, that 
Jesus cleanses the hearts of all whom he 
receives from all sin, to Count Zinzendorf, and 
says "it is attended with the most fatal conse- 
quences, because it cuts off all watching against 
an evil heart of unbelief ; the Delilah, which 
we are told, is gone, though she is still lying 
in our bosom." 

This superficial and sophisticated reasoning 
is only exceptional with Mr. Wesley, whose 
critical perception and logical mind generally 
leaves a position assumed clearly established, 
if, indeed, not unanswerable; and this excep- 
tion only proves the erroneous character of the 



Treatise on Sanctification. \^\ 

sentiment he is advocating. For instance, how 
can a man watch against an attack from an 
enemy he possesses in his heart, and which 
would not be there only as he desires his 
retention, and when found there, the only 
remedy for its destruction is in the blood of 
Christ. It is the duty of the man to see and 
feel it if it exists, and by instant prayer and 
faith apply to the blood of atonement to have 
it washed away. 

The idea of turning the sacred duty of Chris- 
tian watchfulness to the taming or modification 
of the Delilah, or the viper sin in our bosom, 
to see that she is well bound, but keeping her 
still in the heart as a harmless pet where Jesus 
should reign alone, presents one of the most 
fanciful absurdities conceivable. 

The only course God appoints for a sinner 
or a backslidden saint, is to take the Delilahs 
by earnest repentance and faith to Jesus, to 
have him cast them out. Let him again sweep 
the house empty, and garnish it, and thus 
restore it to be a fit temple of the Holy Ghost. 

Mr. Wesley well says in another place: 
** When a man makes this discovery of sin in 



192 ^-^^ Old Paths. 

his heart, unless he pursues this course, he can 
go no further;" and according to Jesus, he 
cannot stand still, ^'for he that gathereth not 
with me, scattereth abroad;" and hence he must 
go further back still, or become again cleansed. 
It is not, therefore, the duty of a man, with an 
unsanctified heart to watch against that, but it 
is the duty of the man out of whose heart 
Chiist has cast the devil, and spoiled his goods, 
leaving it clean, swept and garnished, to stand 
on perpetual watch to resist the first onset of 
the devil when he returns with his reinforce- 
ment of seven other spirits more wicked than 
himself, lest he and them enter there again 
and dwell, making the last state of that man 
worse than the first." 

The appropriate position for a man who has 
this enemy chained in his heart, is to open 
wide the door, unloose his chains, and watch 
anxiously his escape. 

What would be thought of a jailer who had 
a troublesome prisoner, unlawfully held, and 
earnestly wishing his escape, who nevertheless 
should go into his cell, put a chain on every 
limb, fasten them firmly to the floor, lock and 



Treatise on Sanctification. 193 

bar the doors and grates, and then, through a 
crevice, watch for his escape ? 

Instead of the doctrine for which we con- 
tend, being dangerous and fatal, we hold that 
such is the doctrine of Mr. Wesley. Here is a 
man, for instance, who has a carnal mind that 
makes him ^'love all evil,'' and such a heart, 
according to Mr. Wesley, is that of every jus- 
tified believer, and that, too, from the very 
moment of his conversion, and as a justified 
believer he is sure of heaven. What can be a 
more fatal deception ? But we argue that if 
^'the love of all evil" is in a converted soul, 
that soul must know it, because it is a feeling; 
that of love, '* the love of all evil," and is it 
not impossible to love a thing or being, and not 
know it ? 

According to Mr. Wesley's admission, that 
no love is felt for evil in the heart when first 
converted there can none exist. 



13 



194 T^^ Old Paths, 



CHAPTER IX. 

TEE SMALLEST DEGEEE OF FAITH SAYES THE SOUL 

The assumption that all justified believers have 
a proneness to, and love for all evil, and are 
carnally minded, besides the abstract manner 
in which these expressions, descriptive of sin 
in believers, are calculated to deceive those 
who have no such hearts, simply by their 
ambiguity. One of those commonly used in 
this connection, is that of ^'the roots of bitter- 
ness/* 

We may just remark here, that it is apparent 
to all who have examined this subject, that the 
most difficult feature with which its advocates 
have to contend, is the want of terms to 
describe the moral condition of a heart which 
IS justified but not sanctified. They need terms 
which will describe a heart, to be at the same 
time both clean and unclean; that loves and 
hates the same object; that is innocent and 
guilty; that needs to repent of what another 



Treatise on Sanctificatiojy, 19 5 

done (for Adam's sin which they have in their 
heart), to be perfect and imperfect, righteous 
and unrighteous, holy and unholy, pure and 
impure, just in the sight of God, and not just, 
a believing and unbelieving heart, sanctified 
and unsanctified. 

Now this very incongruity, this necessity of 
terms meaning opposites, and there being no 
such, demonstrates the idea attempted to be 
taught, a most foolish and absurd error. 

As there is no other way of understanding 
the meaning of Scripture terms only by examin- 
ing the passages in which they occur, and hence 
to obtain the proper definition, and as it is 
generally to erroneous definitions of terms, this, 
and all other errors are to. be attributed, it is 
the only course by which we can arrive at 
truth. 

The expression above alluded to, is found in 
Heb, xii, 12, 16: " Wherefore lift up the hands 
which hang down, and the feeble knees; and 
make straight paths for your feet, lest that 
which is lame be turned out of the way, but 
rather let it be healed, follow peace with all 
men and holiness, without which no man shall 



196 ^^^ Old Paths, 

see the Lord; looking diligently lest any man 
fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bit- 
terness springing up trouble you, and thereby 
many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator 
or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel 
of meat sold his birthright/' 

The roots of bitterness springing up, against 
which these Christians were warned, meant 
sinful acts, as fornicators or profane persons, 
'' whereby many were defiled, and thereby had 
fallen from the grace of God." Already their 
hands had hung down, and their knees were 
feeble, instead of walking firmly and steadily 
in the narrow way. Already they had made 
crooked paths for then* feet, instead of obey- 
ing the instruction, " Make straight paths for 
your feet,'' and had become lame by walking 
therein, and were cautioned against being 
turned entirely out of the way, and enjoined 
rather to let their moral lameness be healed. 
The purity from which they had wandered, 
was held up as the standard which alone gives 
peace and holiness, and qualifies for the service 
of God. Such should remember the fate of 
Esau, who by his profanity fell so far that he 



Treatise on Sanctification, X97 

found no place of repentance, though he sought 
it earnestly with tears. 

Such a course and result is indeed a root of 
bitterness, but who cannot see that it has no 
reference whatever to remaining sin in the 
hearts of justified saints from the time of their 
conversion, and, therefore, furnishes no proof 
of Mr. Wesley^s doctrine. 

In regard to unbelief in believers, he says: 
**The word has two meanings, either little 
faith or no faith; the absence of faith, or its 
weakness. In the former sense unbelief is 
commonly mixed with a doubt or fear, that is, 
in the latter sense with unbelief. Why are ye 
fearful, says our Lord, O! ye of little faith. 
Again: O ! thou of little faith, wherefore didst 
thou doubt ? You see, here was unbelief in 
believers." In proof of this plausible argu- 
ment, Mr. Wesley introduces two passages of 
Scripture^ and we shall see that neither of them 
teaches his sentiment. 

In the first place, we remark that the Bible 
clearly discriminates between the *' faith that 
worketh by love and purifieth the heart," as 
it is expressed, and the faith to work miracles, 



198 The Old Paths. 

and Tve shall see that these two passages refer 
to the latter faith. 

That the faith to work miracles may exist in 
the absence of that which makes a man's heart 
Christ-like, is clearly taught by Paul. 1 Cor, 
xiii, 2: "And though I have all have, so that I 
could remove mountains, and have not charity, 
I am nothing.'' 

That the word charity here comprehends 
the whole spirit of the gospel, is evident from 
what it does. " It suffereth long, is kind, 
envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, 
thinketh no evil, rejoiceth, not in iniquity, 
but rejoiceth in the truth, believeth all things, 
endureth all things." Here we see that a 
man may have all faith to work miracles, and 
yet not have charity, and "charity believeth 
all things," and therefore, includes the faith 
which transforms the heart into the image of 
God. That the expression, " O! ye of little 
faith," was the faith which enables to work 
miracles, is clearly seen by its connection. 

Matt, xiv, 28-31: "And Peter said, Lord if 
it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the 



Treatise on Sanctification, 199 

water, and he said come, and Peter walked on 
the water to go to Jesus, but when he saw the 
wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning 
to sink, he cried out, saying Lord save me, 
and immediately Jesus stretched forth his 
hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O! 
ye of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?'^ 

The term little faith here, means that Peter 
had no faith adequate to work this miracle of 
setting aside the laws of gravitation and of 
atmospheric pressure, in regard to which Jesus 
taught that the smallest degree of faith was 
all that was demanded to work the greatest 
miracle. MatL xvii, 19, 20: ^* Then came 
the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why 
could not we cast him out? And Jesus said 
unto them, because of your unbelief; for verily 
I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of 
mustard seed, which is less than all the seeds 
that be in the earth, ye shall say unto this 
mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and 
it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossi- 
ble to you/' 

If Peter, therefore, had possessed as small a 
degree of faith as this, and the legitimate teach- 



200 ^^^ Old Paths. 

iiig of the figure is that it is the very smallest, 
on this occasion, he could have walked on the 
sea safely to Jesus, but he was as faithless to 
accomplish this feat as were these disciples to 
cast out this devil, and therefore they both 
failed. 

In the record Mark gives of this transaction, 
it is positively declared that the disciples on 
the ship, amid the storm, had no faith to quell 
it. "And Jesus arose and rebuked the wind, 
and said unto the sea, peace, be still, and the 
wind ceased, and there was a great calm; and 
he said unto them: Why are ye so fearful? 
How is it that ye have no faith ? " 

Is it not conclusive from these passages, 
when properly understood, that they do not 
teach what Mr. Wesley endeavors to make 
them — that is, that saving faith in Jesus and 
damning unbelief exists in the same heart, and 
in the hearts of all mere justified believers. 

The disciples certainly had not apostatized 
from having saving faith in Jesus, and yet he 
declares they had no faith^ from which we 
conclude that a man may have the faith in 
Jesus "which works by love and purifies the 



Treatise on Sanctification, 201 

heart," and not have the least faith to work 
miracles; and as these passages relate to the 
faith to work miracles, and not to that which 
purifies the heart, in which latter sense Mr. 
Wesley uses them, he utterly fails of his pur- 
pose, and with all others must forever fail in 
such an attempt, from the fact that the Bible 
teaches no such doctrine. 

We would not even appear to cast the least 
reflection upon a man of such intelligence and 
godly attainments as the sainted Wesley; and 
what astonishes us most is, that he should have 
seen and taught so much truth, taking into con- 
sideration the floods of error the reformers 
brought out of Papacy, with which he was sur- 
rounded, and the moral darkness of the Pro- 
testant church at that period, and to say he 
was not vastly in advance of his age, would be 
to contradict history. But in his attempt to 
establish the doctrine of the second blessing, 
and consequently of sin in believers, as the 
grounds for it, he fails in every point to distin- 
guish or to accept the distinction, that there 
were in all the churches and in all periods three 
classes of professors: First, those who had 



202 ^-^^ ^^^ Paths, 

always maintained their integrity and purity 
from their conversion, such as those thus 
addressed: " I have a few names even in Sardis 
who have not defiled their garments, and they 
shall walk with me in white, for they are 
worthy." Secondly, those w^ho had left their 
first love and become again contaminated by 
the filthiness of sin; ''who had evil hearts of 
unbelief in departing from the living God,^' 
the very departing begetting the evil heart. 
Here, by tne way, is the philosophy or theology 
of sin in believers; they were once such, but 
now unbelievers, because a man cannot be a 
believer and be departing from the living God 
at the same time. Thirdly, those who, from 
various motives and under various delusions, 
have found their way into the church, who 
were never converted at all, and thus we find 
that there w^as not an epistle wrote to any of 
the apostolic churches in which, at least, two 
of these classes, and generally the third, were 
not recognized. 

It is because Mr. Wesley did not appreciate 
or acknowledo:e this fact that led him into 
error in regard to this subject. Some walked 



Treatise on Sanctification. 203 

in the spirit, as they had commenced; others 
fell from this grace and became again entangled 
and contaminated by the filthiness of the flesh, 
and some '* hated even the garments spotted by 
the flesh; '' some preserved their spiritual 
mindedness, while others, in the same church, 
had become carnally minded. To these sev- 
eral classes were the epistles, as well as the 
angelic messages to the seven churches of Asia, 
addressed. 

In order for Mr. Wesley to make out his 
doctrine of sin in believers, he selects the class 
who had fallen from their original state of 
purity as the example, instead of that of the 
class who had always remained pure, and holds 
up their condition of heart and life as that of 
all justified believers, and therefore erroneously 
concludes that there is a part of all sin left in 
the heart of all believers at and from the 
moment of their justification. 

As the least degree of the faith to work 
miracles enables its possessor to work the 
greatest, we have a right to infer that the least 
degree of faith in Jesus gives purity of heart; 
we mean perfect purity, and indeed this quali- 



204 ^-^^ Old Paths. 

fication is superfluous, because that which is 
not perfectly pure is positively impure; and 
unless the heart can be divided, so that a part 
may be pure and a part impure, it must be 
either wholly pure or wholly impure. It is 
unquestionably true that there is strong and 
weak faith — we mean saving faith, or '' that 
which works by love and purifies the heart " 
(this being Paul's definition, we like it best) — 
but upon this point Mr. Wesley commits 
another error, in concluding that where there 
is little faith there is much unbelief, as though 
every mind had just such a quantity of belief 
and unbelief, and in the same ratio in which 
one diminishes the other increases — entirely 
ignoring the simplest and most universally 
conceded thought God ever revealed to man, 
which is that the whole human race, at least 
who hear the gospel, are divided in their rela- 
tions to him into two and only two classes, and 
the great principle of that classification is 
belief and unbelief, the consequences of either 
and both are thus emphatically pronounced: 
'^ He that belie veth shall be saved, and he that 
believeth not shall be damned." 



Treatise on Sanctification. 205 

If a man could be a believer and an unbe- 
liever, or have some faith and some unbelief 
(which is the same thing) at the same time, he 
would belong to both of these classes, or to 
neither. The consequence would be that God 
could do nothing with him, as it respects future 
rewards and punishments, only on the suppo- 
sition of dividing the man, saving the believing 
part and damning the unbelieving part. 

The only principle we can conceive, upon 
which impartial justice can be done to sinners, 
is that the smallest degree of faith in Christ 
saves from sin, and saves in heaven, because 
there are, owing to the limitation of mental 
calibre and cultivation and the shortness of 
human life and the suddenness of death, those 
who could not otherwise be saved, while on the 
other hand, the smallest degree of unbelief 
against Christ, is damning in its nature; and 
if it could be in the heart of a Christian^ 
which we hold to be impossible, would be the 
more deserving of damnation than in the heart 
of a sinner who was never converted, because 
the sin of the unbelief of the Christian m 
against the greater light. 



206 T^^ Old Paths, 

If, therefore, a man is a believer at all. and 
has the smallest degree of faith in Jesus, he 
obtains pardon from all his guilt, and purity 
from all his depravity, together with a title 
to life and immortality, and the greatest degree 
of faith gives its possessor no greater pardon, 
purity or salvation. ^' It is required of a man 
according to that which he hath, and. not 
according to that which he hath not:^' ^* Where 
much is given, much is required, and where 
little is given, little is required/^ 

Therefore, as far as it respects the pardon, 
purity and salvation of sinners, every man who 
has any faith at all to be saved, receives the 
same, and receives it all. 

If any man is dissatisfied at such a gracious 
distribution, supposing he, in his self-conceit, 
should be elevated to a more conspicuous posi- 
tion than his not so fortunate neighbor, and in 
consideration of the great advantage he has 
been to God and his cause, that something 
should be said or done to give him distinction 
in the other world. 

In regard to such, we venture the remark, 
that unless pride and selfishness enter into the 



Treatise on Sanctification. 207 

kingdom of God, the man with such feelings 
and aspirations will never gain an inheritance 
among those whose chief characteristic will be 
that of humility. Besides, we will copy for 
the benefit of such the instruction given in 
advance, and applicable to the case. 

Matt. 20: ^'For the kingdom of heaven is 
like . unto a man that is a householder, which 
went out early in the morning to hire laborers 
into his vineyard, and when he had agreed with 
the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them 
into his vineyard. And he went out about 
the third hour, and saw others standing idle 
in the market place, and said unto them, go ye 
also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right 
I will give you. Again he went out about the 
sixth and ninth hours, and did likewise. And 
about the eleventh hour, he went out and found 
others standing idle, and saith unto them, why 
stand ye here all the day idle ? and they say 
unto him, because no man hath hired us; he 
saith unto them, go ye also into the vineyard, 
and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. 
So when even was come, the lord of the vine- 
yard saith unto his steward, call th^ laborers 



208 ^^^ Old Paths. 

and give them their hire, beginning from the 
last unto the first. And when they came that 
was hired about the eleventh hour, they received 
every man a penny; but when the first came, 
they supposed that they should have received 
more, and they likewise received every man a 
penny, and when they had received it, they 
murmured against the good man of the house, 
saying, these last have wrought but one hour, 
and thou hast made them equal unto us, which 
have borne the burden and heat of the day; 
but he answered one of them and said: Friend, 
I do thee no wrong; didst thou not agree with 
me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go 
thy way; I will give unto this last even as 
unto thee; is it not lawful for me to do what 
I will with my own ? Is thine eye evil because 
mine is good ?" 

We apprehend that those who are so fortu- 
nate as to enter the kingdom of God, not only 
the first impulse will be a marvel how they 
got there at all, but a theme of eternal wonder 
that God 

'' Should make slaves the partners of his throne. 
Decked with a never-fading crown." 



Treatise on Sanctification, 209 

If we should suppose a case who ha^ what 
we deem the smallest degree of faith in Christ 
to be saved from sin, it would be the following: 
Mat, ix, 2: *^And behold, they brought to him 
a man sick of palsy, lying on a bed, and Jesus, 
seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the 
palsy: Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be for- 
given thee. And behold, certain of the Scribes 
said within themselves, this man blasphemeth; 
and Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said: 
Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts, for 
whether is easier to say, thy sins be forgiven 
thee, or to say, arise and walk ? But that ye 
may know that the Son of man hath power 
on earth to forgive sins, then saith he to the sick 
of the palsy, arise, take up thy bed, and go 
unto thy house, and he arose and departed unto 
his house.'' 

Here we have a man whose friends had faith 
that Jesus could cure his palsy, and for thi;^ 
purpose they brought him. In honor of that 
faith, Jesus not only cured his sickness, but 
pardoned his sins; and there is not the least 
evidence that in the faith of his friends, even, 
there was any thought or conception of Jesus 
14 



210 The Old Paths, 

forgiving the man's sins, and if he himself had 
any such faith, Jesus would have recognized it. 
Now, as it was consistent for him to cure the 
man's palsy on the strength of the faith of 
others, so was it also to forgive his sins, though 
not an intimation had been made or entertained, 
either by the sick man or his friends, relating 
to it, yet such was the sequel. But as it is not 
possible for Jesus to forgive sins without faith, 
this man must have had some faith in the 
power of Christ, not only to heal his disease, 
but to do for him whatever he needed, although 
he had no distinct conception of what it was; 
and therefore while healing his palsy, Jesus 
done for him what was infinitely more im- 
portant, and was all he needed, pardoned his 
sins. 

We have already seen that Jesus announced 
the principle that if it was consistent for him 
to cleanse a sinner at all, he could and would 
completely cleanse him from all sin. ^'If I 
wash thee not,'' said he to Peter, ^'thou hast 
no part in me." " Then," said Peter, ^^ not my 
feet alone, but my hands and my head." But 
Jesus said unto himt ^' He that is washed 



Treatise on Sanctification. 211 

needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean 
every whit." 

Is it not the conclusion from these teachings 
that if a man has the least conceivable degree 
of faith in Jesus, so that he can do anything in 
any manner for him, that he can do all he needs, 
and that he will do it; if he heals his palsy he 
forgives his sins, although he does not ask or 
think about this. If he forgives his sins, so ai^ 
to give the sinner a part in him, he cleanses his 
heart from moral corruption; and if he cleanses 
it at all, he makes it ** clean every whit." If 
this is not the teaching of him who spake as 
never man spake, in vain may man endeavor 
to understand anything he taught. But it is 
said: ^* Faith is the gift of God." Suppose it 
is, so is eternal life; but there are conditions 
upon which the bestowment is made, and which 
must be consistent with God^s government. 

Paul says: ^' Faith cometh by hearing, and 
hearing by the word of God; " hence the man 
who takes most heed as to how he hears, as 
<^ new born babes desire the sincere milk of the 
word, that they may grow thereby," make the 
most rapid progress, and consequently have 



212 The Old Paths, 

the greatest degree of evidence upon which 
faith is founded, and therefore have the greatest 
degree of faith, and of course he who hears 
and receives least of the teachings of the word 
of Gody to him cometh the least degree of 
faith, because " faith cometh by hearing, and 
hearing by the word of God; ^' hence the com- 
mand: *' Go ye into all the world and preach 
the gospel to every creature. He that believeth 
shall be saved; he that believeth not, shall be 
damned." According to this, there are as 
many degrees of faith as there are individuals 
who hear and receive the word of God, hence 
the expressions, strong and weak faith; but 
the weak faith in the true penitent, just coming 
to JesuSy seeking him as the object of his love, 
crying, ''^ where is he whom my soul loveth,''* 
works by love and purifies the heart, just as 
perfectly as does the strongest; and it is no 
more true ^' that without faith it is impossible 
to please God," than that those having the 
least faith do please him. And it is also no 
more true that those who grow most rapidly in 
grace, and in the knowlege of the truth, as it 
is in Jesus, or as taught by Jesus, have the 



Treatise on Sanctification. 213 

strongest faith, than that those whose circum- 
stances admit only of more moderate progress 
in this knowledge, are just as pure as the 
others. That the one with the five talents is 
no more pure, or more pleasingly meets God's 
approbation in time and eternity, than the one 
having the two. 

Dr. Young thus beautifully puts this truth 
into poetry: 

He that does the hest his cireum«tances admit, 
Does well, acts nobly; angels can do no more. 

The fact is, the degree of faith or intelli- 
gence, if it is removed above blank idiocy, has 
no connection whatever with the degree of 
Christian purity; it has with the degree of 
steadiness and constancy of Christian charac- 
ter, makes a man a pillar in the church. It 
was the strength of Abraham's faith which 
moved God to call him the ** Father of the 
faithful." 

It is by confounding the degree of purity 
with the degree of faith, which led Mr. Wesley 
and all who advocate his doctrine of sin in 
believers, to commit another error, and who 



214 The Old Paths. 

must forever be involved in it, unless they 
become humble enough to pluck out these right 
eyes of preconceived opinion, and go directly 
to Jesus and the apostles for truth. Then, 
indeed, will they be sanctified by its belief, 
and not till then. Then, indeed, will they be 
'•chosen through sanctification of the spirit 
and belief of the truth.'' Then, indeed, will 
they be clean through the words which Jesus 
has spoken unto them. 

This will be a sanctification which is '^ not 
puffed up, vaunteth not itself, and doth not 
behave itself unseemly," by parading its high 
attainments before others. It will be a purit}" 
appearing most conspicuously in its humility, 
esteeming others better than themselves, instead 
of themselves better than others, as these 
modern second blessing professors generally 
do. Such will find it wholly unnecessary to 
profess to be anything but Christians. They 
will have such views of Christ as the}^ draw 
near and behold him as " the sun shining in his 
strength," that their only embarrassment will 
be in making such an exalted profession, as 
being his follower, by living within the circle 



Treatise on Sanctification. 215 

of his glowing light, they will behold such a 
contrast, that with the holy prophet they will 
cry out, " Woe is me, for I am undone; because 
I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the 
midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine 
eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts." 



•216 '^^^ ^^^ Paths. 



CHAPTER X. 

TKE DANGER OF THIS DOCTRINE. 

The evil tendency and dangerous results of 
this erroneous doctrine, is in deluding formal 
professors and backsliders into the belief that 
although they have all these sins in their hearts, 
they are, nevertheless, justified believers, and 
as such, are sure of heaven; thereby encour- 
aging them to continue in such a state of heart, 
of which there are thousands in the church. 

There are also others who have never been 
converted, some of whom under religious 
excitement, when mere children, joined the 
church, and if they became converted after- 
wards, while perhaps engaged in seeking the 
second blessing, but which is really only the 
first, and it is this class who draw comparisons 
between the first and second blessinsr, and make 
the first but a few drops in comparison with 
the ocean of the second, when the fact is, they 
never had the first at all; if they had, they 



Treatise on Sanctification. 21 T 

could never belittle it in this way; but here is 
one of the delusions of this doctrine; error is 
always fruitful. 

But we say that when backsliders and those 
never converted, hear the second blessing doc- 
trine, describing such a state of heart as Mr. 
Wesley declares that to be of all mere justified 
believers, they feel and know that their hearts 
are no worse than the picture, and are therefore, 
encouraged to continue in this state of heart. 

Besides this, there is the dreadful influence 
produced by such teaching, that the justifica- 
tion of sinners is but a very little thing, because 
it leaves men with such bad hearts, all filthy, 
corrupt, depraved, unclean, impure and unholy 
as to be ** in love with all evil," as Mr. Wesley 
says of them. Such a change they feel, is 
not only unimportant, but hardly worth having; 
thus is God's great truth degraded, which the 
Bible represents to be the most wonderful 
work the great God ever performed. *'That 
God can be just, and yet the justifier of him 
that believeth in Jesus." How God can still 
be a being of truth and veracity, and justify 
the sinful soul, when he had unqualifiedly 



218 The Old Pates. 

declared ^* The soul that sinneth, it shall die." 
The fatal delusion of this doctrine is, that it 
cries peace and safety to those whose hearts 
have either become corrupt and sinful by ceas- 
ing to abide in Christ, or to those carnal minded 
professors, who are in the nominal church, but 
who were never in Christ at all. 

Let it be proclaimed in the whole Protestant 
church, '' Without holiness, no man shall see 
the Lord," and that if the heart of a Christian 
is unholy or unclean, it has become such if 
once converted, by ** leaving its first love," 
holding up as the standard, the continual main- 
tainence of sanctified hearts from conversion, 
and what a marvellous change would come 
over the whole church. The position we hold 
to be unanswerable, that no doctrine can be 
true, the tendency of which is to encourage 
any human being, who has any sin in his heart, 
to feel safe in his relation with God, even for 
a single moment. We object to the idea of 
imiversal salvation, from the fact that its legiti- 
mate tendency is to strengthen the wicked to 
continue such. 

We also object to the idea of partial election 



Treatise on Sangtification. 219 

and the necessary perseverance of the saints, 
because it encourages those who were once 
converted, to be easy subjects of temptation, 
and to live loose lives by the perpetration of 
acts, which if they thought would endanger 
their salvation, they would never do. 

But here in our church we have a worse 
deception than any of these, a doctrine which 
describes a heart in love with all evil, having 
carnal mindedness, pride, hatred, self will, 
unbelief, anger, envy, covetousness, jealousy, 
idolatry, lusting after the flesh, lovers of pleas- 
ure, more than lovers of God, as being the 
state of the hearts of all justified believers, and 
that, too, from the moment of their justifica- 
tion, and which holds, that as such, they are 
sure of being saved, if they die instantly. 

We suppose such will only be undeceived, 
80 strong is this delusion believed, when they 
find themselves among those who stand with- 
out, after the master of the house has risen up 
and shut to the door, crying, **Lord, Lord, 
open unto us," to whom the response will be, 
** Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity." 

But Mr. Wesley also offers as proof of the 



220 ^-^^ Old Paths. 

doctrine of the sinful hearts of all mere justi- 
fied believers, the fact that it is the experience 
of so large a proportion of them. 

In charity for Mr. Wesley^s views upon this 
subject, we cannot but attribute it to his former 
views as an extreme formalist, we mean before 
he was taught the doctrine of justification, by 
faith alone, by the Moravians. It is the same 
thing, though not done intentionally, of ^* bind- 
ing heavy burdens,'' those of the law, or seeking 
to be justified by the righteousness of the law, 
which is clearly the diift of Mr. Wesley's 
teachings in the following passage (Page 119, 
Sermon on Sin in Believers): "But let it be 
supposed that they (justified believers) con- 
tinually watch and pray, and so do not enter 
into temptation; that they continually set a 
watch before their mouth, and keep the door 
of their lips. Suppose they exercise them- 
selves herein, that all their conversation may 
be in grace, seasoned with salt, and meat to 
minister grace to the hearers; yet do they not 
daily slide into useless discourse, notwithstand- 
ing all their caution? and even when they 
endeavor to speak for God, are their words 



Treatise on Sanctifigation. 221 

pure ? Do they find nothing wrong in their 
very intention? Do they speak merely to 
please God, and not partly to please them- 
selves? Is it wholly to do the will of God, 
and not their own will also ? Or, if they begin 
with a single eye, do they go on looking unto 
Jesus, and talking with him all the time they 
are talking with their neighbors ? When they 
are reproving sin, do they feel no anger or 
unkind temper at the sinner ? When they are 
instructing the ignorant, do they not find any 
pride, any self-preference ? When they are 
comforting the afllicted, or provoking one 
another to love and to good works, do they 
never feel inward commendation — now you 
have spoken well — or any vanity, as a desire 
that others should think so, and esteem them 
on that account? In some or all of these 
respects, how much sin cleaves to the best 
conversation, even of believers ? The convic- 
tion of which is another branch of the repent- 
ance which belongs to believers.'^ 

In regard to this picture, it must be remem- 
bered it is that of justified believers, from 
which state of heart his second blessing doc- 



222 ^-2^ Old Paths, 

trine, or sanctification, as he interprets it, 
proposes to deliver its recipients. If this be 
so, it is very certain there are none in our day 
in possession of this state. There is not a man 
on earth, nor ever was, who for a single day 
or hour, when he was not asleep or insane, 
who kept all these rules without infringement. 
It paints a picture of nothing less than angelic 
and absolute perfection, and taints the very 
best conversation of any mortal with sin, as 
nothing but absolute perfection can do; and it 
must be also remembered that the object for 
which the sermon was wrote was to combat a 
man who had preached in a certain place that 
God cleansed the heart when he justified a 
sinner, and made it pure; and in order to suc- 
ceed, he draws this adroit and spurious descrip- 
tion, as that of the hearts of all when first 
converted. But we hold that these rules or 
requirements are only obtained by a misap- 
prehension and misconstruction of the expres- 
sions of Scripture here introduced, which will 
be apparent as we ask those questions again, 
and give such answers to them as we suppose 
the purest Christian ever lived may intelli- 



Treatise on Sanctification. 223 

gently and conscientiously give. In answer 
to what is first said of Christians walking 
and being in grace, closing with the sen- 
tence; '^And meat to minister grace to the 
hearers, yet do they not not daily slide into 
useless discourse, notwithstanding all their 
caution? " We answer emphatically no, because 
if they are born again, and do not backslide in 
heart, and if they do in heart, it will show itself 
in life, they fully meet all the requisitions of 
Christ^s precepts, and those of the apostles: 
**He keepeth himself, and that wicked one 
toucheth him not." 

But again: '' When they endeavor to speak 
for God, are their words pure — free from 
unholy mixture?" We answer, yesj because 
their endeavor to do so, supposes purity of 
motive and intention, and this is perfect Chris- 
tian purity itself, and there is nothing more of 
it. "First make the tree good, and the fruit 
will be good, for a good tree cannot produce 
evil fruit." {Christ.) 

** Do they find nothing wrong in their inten- 
tion?" We answer, no; and for the same 
reason. An endeavor to speak for God is an 



224 T^^ Old Paths. 

intention to thus speak; and we will add, that 
the idea implied in the question is nothing but 
an ambiguous endeavor to show the existence 
of sin in a heart where there is none; the ten- 
dency of which is to deceive the ignorant. 

** Do they speak merely to please God, and 
not partly to please themselves?" Answer: 
They may do both, and be as innocent and 
pure as him who said: ^' My delight is in the 
law of the Lord." No man can please God, 
and endeavor to do so, without pleasing him- 
self also. It involves a philosophic impossi- 
bility. 

*' Is it wholly to do the will of God, and not 
their own will also?" We answer: A man's will 
may be in such perfect harmony with God, and 
in subjection to his will, that the will of the 
one is that of the other. He may do this, and 
be as holy as him who said: " My meat and 
drink is to do the will of him that sent me." 
And this is holiness, or God-likeness, and it is 
all of it. A perfect saint may therefore do the 
will of God, and at the same time his own will 
also. 

" If they begin with a single eye, do they 



Treatise on Sanctification. 225 

go on, looking unto Jesus?" Answer: If they 
do not, it is not to be attributed to sin chained 
in their hearts, but to such as the sin of the 
woman, who once looked back, for which God 
struck her into a pillar of salt; of whom Jesus 
said, to admonish such as should cease to look 
to him: " Remember Lot^s wife." 

*' Do they talk with Jesus all the time they 
are talkino; with their nei^-hbor?" Answer: 
The question involves absurdity. 

*' When they are reproving sin, do they feel 
no anger or unkind temper to the sinner?" 
Answer: There is no such thing, as the ques- 
tion seems to suppose, as sin abstract from the 
sinner; but as it is the act of the sinner, God 
and man holds him responsible, and if, by the 
w^ords anger and temper, the same is meant, 
then we say that a perfect saint may be so 
highly excited against a godless and incorri- 
gible sinner, that it reaches indignation; but it 
is holy indignation; and if it is as holy as God 
(which is simply God-likeness), such would be 
his feeling; for it is written: "God is angry 
with the wicked every day; and also: "Be ye 
angry and sin not." 
15 



226 "^^^ Old Paths. 

*'If they are instructing the ignorant, do 
they not find any pride and self-preference?'^ 
We answer: If they do, it is not latent or 
indwelling sin, chained in the heart, but the 
active work of pride, which it must be, in 
order to be pride, and in this case mixed with 
self-conceit; either of which savors more of 
the sin of Lucifer than of the humility of a 
Christian. That it may be determined whether 
men have self-preference while engaged in the 
instruction of the ignorant, it is only necessary 
to know whether they are teaching them their 
own opinions or the doctrines of mere men, 
in preference to the word of God, and in con- 
flict with it. For instance: If, when instruct- 
ing the ignorant, I prefer the doctrines of Mr. 
Wesley to those of Jesus and the apostles, 
then it is certain I am committing the sin of 
pride and self-preference. 

''When they are comforting the afflicted, or 
provoking one another to love and good works, 
do they never perceive any inward self-com- 
mendation — noiD you have done weW'' We 
answer: That as the word " commendation '^ 
means to speak in favor, and inward commenda- 



Treatise ok Sanctification. 227 

tion to think in favor of, and as a man " should 
not think of himself more highly than he 
ought to think, but to think soberly," such as 
the author of these words did when he said, 
after thinking soberly: ''As ye have us for 
ensamples,'' and '' follow me as I follow Christ." 
May we not, therefore, inwardly feel, think 
and earnestly desire that others should follow 
us as we follow Christ; and this is inward com- 
mendation, thinking favorably of one's self in 
comparison with godless sinners, and if Satan 
suggests, now you have done ivell^ when we 
have assisted one of his followers to turn 
against him and abandon his service, and accept 
of Christ^s, we may respond yes, and thank 
God that he has condescended to use us instru- 
mentally in the destruction of the kingdom of 
darkness. Thus we might continue to expose 
the sophistry and false reasoning upon Christian 
hearts and doctrines these two sermons contain, 
but we have said enough to show the extremity 
to which their author was driven to make out 
his theory. 

Here Mr. Wesley declares that the sin in 
believers is chained so that it does not reign, 



228 ^-^^ ^^^ Paths. 

and then goes on to specify its effects, as exem- 
plified in thoughts, motives, feelings and actions, 
in every instance giving it living vitalitj'. 

If these are indeed guilty of having such 
sinful hearts, as those with which he endeavors 
to criminate them, they can have no claim of 
being Christ's followers or the children of God; 
" for if they were the children of God, they 
would do the works of God,'' and if they were 
ever converted, were now nothing but back- 
sliders. 



Treatise on Sanctification, 229 



CHAPTER XL 

EXPEEIENCE NO TEST OF DOCTRINE. 

In this connection, we propose to reply to 
Mr. Wesley^s objection against the doctrine 
that there is no sin in believers from the 
moment they are jnstificd, "because it is con- 
trary to the experience of the children of 
God." In answer to this objection we remark, 
that it is perfectly irrelevant to the case, 
because doctrines stand upon their own basis, 
and in the nature of the case cannot be affected 
by the experince of men. 

If experience proves the truth of a doctrine, 
or system of doctrines, then the experience of 
the Jews proved the doctrines of Christ false, 
for as such they had no experience in harmony 
with them. 

If such a supposition be admitted, then the 
experience of the Mohamxuedans proves their 
doctrines true, and those of Christianity false. 
So we mio^ht 2:0 throuo;h the whole list, but it 



230 ^-2^ Old Paths. 

seems only necessary thus to mention the 
absurdity, in order to demonstrate it to be such. 

Jesus said, '' I judge no man, but the words 
which I have spoken unto you, they shall judge 
you in the last day/^ 

This, therefore, being the rule of judgment, 
by which sinners, who never had any Christian 
experience, as well as all others, are to be tried, 
justified or condemned, would have remained 
the same, and have been used for the same 
purpose, if no man ever had a Christian expe- 
rience, and what is true of this, is also of every 
other doctrine of the Bible. And, therefore, 
if the Bible teaches the doctrine that God 
cleanses the heart of every one whom he 
receives, and at the time he receives him, then 
one of two things must follow, either that 
there is no uncleanness in the heart of a justi- 
fied believer, unless he has backslidden, or that 
what man may fancy to be moral pollution, as 
in the instances we have examined of Mr. 
Wesley's views in regard to it, must be incor- 
rect, and when rightly understood, will be 
found consonant with Christian purity as taught 
in the Bible. 



Treatise on Sanctification, 231 

For instance: After Jesus had said to his 
disciples, "Now ye are clean through the word 
which I have spoken unto you," no after expe- 
rience of those disciples could prove that they 
were not clean at that time. 

The experience of one of these who denied 
his Lord and master, and cursed and swore 
that he knew not the man, had no eflFect upon 
the fact that his heart was once clean every 
whit, nor the doctrine according to which it 
had been accomplished. 

In order to show the absurdity of the sup- 
position that experience is the test of the truth 
of a doctrine, we wish to introduce an instance 
in connection with this very doctrine. 

We heard a man draw a comparison between 
the two blessings, one received at justification, 
and the other at sanctification, declaring the 
former to be but the few drops compared with 
the shower, and yet this man said he never 
knew when he was justified. It was when he 
was about ten years of age. The second 
blessing, according to him, was almost every- 
thing which was the result of his experience, 
judging from his stand-point. 



232 ^-^^ 0^^ Paths, 

The fact, however, in this case being, that 
he was never justified at all. When a child, 
he had been induced to join the church, 
sincere enough, no doubt, but had he drank 
the cup of repentance, realizing the nature of 
sin as others have done, and then been par- 
doned, would he not have remembered when 
it was ? No wonder he should have found in 
his heart, because never converted at all, all 
the sin Mr. Wesley describes. But now he seeks 
sanctification, and receiving it as he supposes, 
but it is ox)\j justification in our apprehension. 
How difierentlj he talks about conversion than 
Saul of Tarsus ? How different his experience 
from millions of others, and the reason is obvi- 
ous; he never had it when he supposed, and 
when he did receive it, as sanctification, as he 
understood it, no wonder it was the shower in 
comparison to the few drops, which in his 
childhood, he confounded with justification. 
Hence the delusion, that experience proves the 
truth of any doctrine. 

In fact, the two ideas of doctrines and expe- 
rience, are so dissimilar that they admit of no 
comparison; experience is that which a man 



Treatise on Sanctification. 233 

feels or has felt, and relates to the heart or 
affections, while doctrines comprehend a system 
of ideas, and relate to the intellect. 

All that experience can do in this direction 
is, to enable the man who has complied with 
the requirements of any doctrine, to know that 
he has thus complied. Hence it is said, John 
vii, 17: '^ If any man shall do his will, he shall 
know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or 
whether I speal^ of myself.'^ But we claim, 
what the advocates of sin in believers all con- 
cede, that the experience of all Christians is m 
harmony with our view, to the effect that no 
sin exists in the hearts of justified belivers, 
and never will be felt or experienced, unless 
they fall from grace; while Mr. Wesley admits 
that no sin is felt or experienced in any heart 
when justified; therefore all experience vindi- 
cates our position, and not Mr. Wesley's; — the 
only difference being, that he finds sin in the 
heart, not at the moment of justification, but 
at some period afterwards; while we agree 
with him in finding no sin in the heart at jus- 
tification, but if we find it in the heart at sonic 
future period, it is the result of havino^ left its 



234 ^^^ ^^^ Paths, 

first love; and while we call on such to return, 
repent, and do the first works over again, or 
receive the apostate^s doom, Mr. Wesley ^s doc- 
trine lulls them in the sleep of carnal security, 
by proclaiming to them that they are justified 
believers, and as such are sure of salvation; and 
that, in some mysterious way, God makes impure 
hearts pure, before taking them out of the world, 
even if they are killed by lightning; which is 
contrary to God's whole economy of grace — 
Avhose voice is to be ready at any and every 
moment for the transition of worlds. Is not the 
tendency of belief in such, fatally to encourage 
men to continue unholy in heart? 

Just make them believe that they are jus- 
tified, and, as such, sure of heaven; if taken 
out of the world, no matter by what casualty, 
or however suddenly, God will see to it and 
purify their hearts before sensibility is gone, 
or even afterwards, as long as life lasts. 

Besides, if God can consistently thus cleanse 
the heart from impurity, what propriety or 
truth can there be in that feature of this 
theory, which makes it indispensable that this 
inward sin and impurity of heart shall be dis- 



Treatise on Sanctification, 235 

covered, and he Avho possesses it required to 
mourn on the account of its existence, for quite 
a long period after conversion? Is God a res- 
pecter of persons, that he will do for a man 
struck by lightning what he will not for one 
who is not; that because one is going to die, 
he will cleanse him from the carnal mind, 
while another, who is not so soon to change 
worlds, he leaves this carnal mind, which is 
enmity against himself, in his heart for a longer 
period, and for what purpose God and man 
would be ashamed to tell? 

The fact is, the whole theory casts a most 
sad reflection on the character of God, showing 
him to be inconsistent and partial, and conse- 
quently can have no other foundation than the 
mere fancy of a superstitious brain. 

Another error from this fruitful source is. 
that if a Christian sins willfully after having 
been cleansed and made pure in heart, either 
partly or wholly, all his old depravity returns 
again into his soul. This is like all erroneous 
theories, one part destroys the other. 

It is claimed that this unholy nature is 
inherited down from Adam throus-h all srene- 



236 The Old Paths, 

rations. The very idea of inheritance being 
something transmitted from parents to children, 
or from other ancestors, demonstrates that the 
same thing cannot be inherited the second time 
by the same individual. Suppose a man 
inherits a farm from his ancestors, and that it 
is sunk by an earthquake, can he inherit it 
again ? Or suppose he inherits consumption, 
and that by the application of skillful remedies 
he is partly or wholly cured; now, although 
he may take the consumption and die with it, 
yet he cannot inherit it, or that part of it which 
we have supposed cured. 

Here is a man whose unholy nature, received 
from his ancestors and Adam, has been washed 
away by the blood of Jesus, but now he com- 
mits willful sin, is it not impossible that he 
should again inherit that same depravity which 
had been thus destroyed ? He may become as 
depraved as ever, but is it not simply nonsense 
that it should be the second time inherited ? 
But it is claimed that in some mysterious man- 
ner God sends all his old depravity again into 
the apostate's soul. 

It must be borne in miud that that w^hich God 



Treatise on Sanctification, 237 

sends again into such hearts is the carnal mind, 
and which ^' is enmity against God.'^ Hence the 
monstrous idea that God infuses into the heart 
of every man, no matter how high has been his 
state of grace, whether partly or wholly purified 
from the carnal mind, that very carnal mind 
again, which in its very nature is enmity against 
himself. Does not the sinner who thus falls, and 
for whose recovery provision has been made thus 
— "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the 
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous^' — hate God 
enough, without his especial interfering for the 
porpose of infusing into the fallen heart more 
of the principle of hatred against himself, a 
principle which " is not subject to the law of 
God, neither indeed can be? " 

What would be thought even of a man who 
would act thus toward an enemy, who should 
take especial pains to make his enemy hate him 
with a more deadly hate than he would other- 
wise have done ? But to implicate God with 
such conduct is nothing less than atrocious blas- 
phemy, or else the result of consumate igno- 
rance, for which there is neither Scripture, 
common sense or philosophy. 



238 ^^^ Old Paths, 

We now propose to examine Mr. Wesley's 
last argument in defence of his doctrine of sin 
in believers; and if we find it to fail as per- 
fectly of its object, as all the others have done, 
we submit whether there is the least ground 
for its belief. 

He says: ^' The opposite doctrine, that there 
is no sin in believers, is quite new in the church 
of Christ; for seventeen hundred years it was 
never heard of, till discovered by Count Zin- 
zendorf; but whatever doctrine is new must be 
wrong; for the old is the only true one, and 
no doctrine can be right, unless it is the very 
same which was from the besrinnino:.^' 

We fully endorse the logic and truth of this 
proposition, and conclude, with Mr. Wesley^ 
that if the doctrine we advocate is not older 
than the seventeenth century, and originated 
with Count Zinzendorf, or any other man, then 
it cannot be true. But we have fully proved 
that Jesus Christ and the apostles were the 
authors of the doctrine we adopt, and not 
Count Zinzendorf, and that it originated in the 
very infancy of the church of Christ, when 
composed of only twelv^e members^ and not in 



Treatise on Sanctification. 239 

the seventeenth century, as Mr. Wesley sup- 
posed; but was from the very begmning, and 
is therefore the true one. 

It cannot be unreasonable that Mr. Wesley 
should be required to abide by his own logic, 
and therefore we turn the conclusion against 
himself, and say, whatever doctrine is new 
cannot be true; and we add, it must not be 
taught by garbling a few texts, but by the 
harmony of Scripture, as expounded, not by 
men, but by the sacred writers themselves, and 
leaving them to define the meaning of the 
words they use. 

Having tried Mr. Wesley's doctrine of sin 
in believers by this standard, and found it 
wanting — utterly irreconcilable with Bible 
truth — and having searched the history of the 
church, from the days of Jesus till the present, 
without finding a single teacher or advocate 
of his doctrine, we can come to no other con- 
clusion, than that it originated with himself, 
and therefore, not being from the beginning, 
and never heard of till the seventeenth cen- 
tury, it cannot be true. 



240 The Old Paths. 



CHAPTER XII. 

OUE EXPEEIENCE, AND THE EFFECTS OF THIS DOCTRINE 

As it is supposed by some, although the notion 
is simply absurd, that this doctrine cannot be 
understood, only by those who have had the 
experience in harmony with it, we propose 
here to relate our own. In doing which, we 
shall be obliged to ask pardon for the use of 
the personal pronoun, I, which is more conve- 
nient: 

I think it was in the year 1838, when the 
Eev. James Caughey was stationed at Lansing- 
burgh, N. Y. There was a great revival of 
religion in the church where he preached. 
Many of my young friends were seeking and 
obtaining the favor of God. I became alarmed 
on the account of my sins, and for a number 
of days felt that if I let that opportunity pass 
Vv'ithout being converted, I would be lost. So 
deep was this conviction, that I was afraid to 
sleep nio:hts, because of awful dreams of being 



Tbeatise on Sanctification. 241 

among the lost at the judgment. Nevertheless, 
I strove to resist the conviction, and run the 
hazard of eternal ruin. With others I endea- 
vored to get up a series of dances, for which I 
was passionately fond, for the winter, but 
through the providence of God, failed, I was 
dreadfully afraid to attend these meetings, but 
finally went. I may say here that I was about 
as wild and wicked a youth, of about twenty 
years, as I ever knew; such a profane swearer 
that I did not know when I did it; indeed, 
was prominent in almost every kind of wicked- 
ness. 

After attending the meetings for a few nights, 
I resolved that when the invitation was given 
on the following one, I would go to the altar, 
and not as an experiment, but come what 
would, to be a Christian the remainder of my 
life. 

I went three nights in succession, pleading 
with God to have mercy on me a sinner. So 
intent was J to be saved from sin, and the dam- 
nation of hell, that I hardly heard or noticed 
anything going on around me,^ till between nine 
and ten o'clock the third night, while in the 
16 



242 ^-^^ Old Paths. 

most dreadful, mental and moral dai'kness I 
ever experienced, the heavens seeming like 
brass, I could not weep like others around me, 
and driven almost to despair, all at once, as 
in a moment, light, peace and joy unspeakable 
and full of glory broke in upon my soul; I 
was a new creature in Christ Jesus j for months 
I could sing 

'^ Jesus all the day long 
Was my joy and my song, 

0\ that all his salvation might see ; 
He hath loved me, I cried, 
He hath suffered and died, 

To redeem such a rebel as me." 

At this time, our minister preached a course 
of sermons to the young converts, in the after- 
noons, on the subject of sanctification. Of 
course, he preached just as Mr. Wesley had 
taught, and portrayed the hearts of all merely 
justified believers as unclean, and pointed out 
the second blessing .as the only remedy. He 
said we would all feel just as the poet sings, 
on making the discovery that our hearts were 
still unclean: 



Treatise on Sanctification, 243 

'' 0! that my load of sin were gone, 
0! that I could at last submit; 
Rest for my soul I long to find, 

Saviour of all, if mine thou art," etc. 

These sentiments, of course, were sung as 
applicable to justified believers instead of to 
penitent sinners, to whom they belong; those 
who had seen the spirituality of the law of 
God, and had not submitted to be governed 
by it, who had the yoke of inbred sin still 
crushing them with its guilty weight, and 
before receiving the yoke of Christ, which is 
easy, and which gives rest to the soul. '^ Take 
my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am 
meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest 
to your souls, for my yoke is easy and my 
burden is light.^^ Evidently, the yoke this 
poet sings about, and that Christ puts upon 
every converted sinner, are not the same. But 
supposing this hymn to be expressive of the 
justified heart, it went very far toward singing 
up the load, which was supposed to be sin. 

We were recommended to read Carrevosa, 
Bramwell, Mrs. Fletcher, Esther Ann Rodgers, 
and to take the Guide to Christian Perfection- 



244 ^-^^ Old Paths, 

with which I complied, and became thoroughly 
acquainted with Methodist literature on this 
subject. My peace and joy was now gone, 
and I had the fancied load of sin heavy enough 
upon my heart, and had fully determined to 
seek the second blessing. I sought it earnestly, 
but did not then obtain it. 

About two years after this (I speak simply 
from memory as to the date). Bishop Hedding^ 
who resided then in the village, preached in 
the afternoons on this subject, during the pro- 
gress of another revival. 

I was now well read on the subject, and 
fully understood and believed the doctrine, 
and became more engaged than ever for its 
attainment, seeking it day and night, and, like 
Mr. Bramwell, almost tortured myself in the 
effort; till at last, one evening at a prayer-meet- 
ing held at a private house, all at once I was 
was able to fill up, as the instruction was, with 
faith, the little distance between my suffering 
heart and the blessing I sought, and instantly 
received just what all the expounders described 
upon this subject; and the second blessing 
was mine, the load was gone, and my joy 



Treatise on Sanctification, 245 

and peace returned, and I was as happy as 
when first converted, and no more so. Now 
came the duty of professing it specifically, on 
condition of retaining the evidence, if not the 
blessing itself; neither of which could I afford 
to lose; and therefore, the first opportunity that 
presented itself, I made the distinct profes- 
sion by telling my experience, I now became 
an enthusiastic advocate of this doctrine. I 
seemed to see the church in a horrible condi- 
tion, and became so intent on having it come 
up to this standard, that, to a great degree, I 
lost my interest in the salvation of sinners. 
If I began to pray for them, I soon found 
myself praying for the sanctification of the 
church. If I began to preach to sinners, I 
soon found myself preaching to a corrupt and 
unholy church. 

The Rev. Benjamin Pomeroy at this time 
was stationed in Waterford, who, one evening, 
invited me to come over and preach for him, 
which I endeavored to do, from the text: " Is 
there no balm in Gilead; is there no physican 
there? Why, then, is the health of the daugh- 
ter of my people not recovered?" The appli- 



246 The Old Paths. 

cation I gave it was to a sickly and an unholy 
church, without the second blessing. The 
argument was this: You all acknowledge this 
blessing to be attainable, and that now^ and 
that you would be more useful in the church, 
and able to set better examples before the 
world with than without it. Thus knowing 
your duty, can you retain your justified state, 
and refuse to make the offering of your whole 
heart to God? I contended they could not; 
that the omission of the duty involved guilt. 

After I had finished. Brother Pomeroy 
exhorted, endorsing and enforcing the conclu- 
sion at which I had arrived, the result of which 
was, that all the Christians except myself and 
Brother B., and a few others, went from that 
meeting with the conviction, either that the 
doctrine preached was untrue, or that they 
were all guilty sinners. 

This circumstance had the effect to strengthen 
me In my course on this subject. I did not 
attempt, as some do, to trim along between, 
and endeavor to please both parties, but drove 
the argument to its legitimate conclusion. 

If the premises were correct, the conclusions 



Treatise on Sanctification. 247 

were inevitable. "He that knoweth to do 
good, aud doeth it not, to him it is sin;'^ and 
all admitted that it was a good thing to get 
the heart cleansed from sin. Before I received 
this second experience, or my attention was 
called to it, there were frequent responses to 
my prayers and exhortations by the brethren 
generally, but now I noticed they only came 
from a few, and from those who before this I 
had not taken for the wisest and most consist- 
ent Christians, but they had the peculiar views 
with myself, and we formed a class in the 
church; and many of these had to be converted 
over again about every year, or every six 
months. In fact, I found, so far as my obser- 
vation went, that it was the most ignorant and 
unreliable who made this profession. 

My charity for all my brethren was now 
considerably circumscribed, including very few 
others than those who either had or were seek- 
ing this blessing. I moved along, crying " O! 
that my head were waters, and mine eyes a 
fountain of tears, that I might weep day and 
night for the slain of the daughter of my 
people," giving the passage this application 



248 -^^^ Old Paths. 

and construction. I had the charity which 
endured all things, except a word against the 
doctrine of the second blessing. 

I thought the apostle was either speaking 
for effect, or for some purpose which I could 
not comprehend, when he said: "Let every 
one esteem others better than themselves," as 
I did not suppose any one could be better than 
myself, and indeed none were so good who did 
not possess the second blessing. As for babes 
in Christ, there were none, for all but these 
peculiar few were living in the open omission 
of a known and acknowledged duty, and were 
thus gulity in the sight of God; and my class 
were the only one who could pray effectually 
for them. The church was utterly unprepared 
to feed and nourish young converts, and it 
were about as well they were not converted 
and brought into it, if they were to take the 
example of the great majority, and live with 
hearts full of sin. 

As for other denominations, my only hope 
was that they would all become Methodists, 
and that the Methodists would all come up to 
this standard of what I then supposed to be 



Treatise on Sanctification, 249 

sanctification. If there seemed to be any con- 
flict between the views of Mr. Wesley and the 
doctrines of Jesus upon this subject, the man^s 
were always preferred. If a revival was com- 
menced, I always began to pray and exhort 
the church to get sanctified, without which 
there could be but little hope of the conversion 
of sinners; of course, this was never realized, 
and therefore I was always gloomy and disap- 
pointed on such occasions. If I dreaded any 
one sentiment more than another, it was that 
of attaining the second blessing by degrees, 
through a period of years. 

With such views and feelings, I found every- 
thing to be confusion; before this I was happy, 
and had charity for all Christians, but now all 
was contest and disappointment; I became 
almost discouraged because so few would come 
up to my standard, and especially so few of 
the intellio;ent and the straio^htforward of the 
church. This was marvelous. Under these 
circumstances I began to reflect, and resolved 
to review the whole subject, and to ascertain, 
if possible, the real grounds for the doctrine. 
I laid aside all the Methodist literature and 



250 ^^^ Old Paths. 

human opinion, going directly to the Bible, 
and to that alone, to see if indeed its doctrines, 
I had thus adopted, corresponded with it, the 
result of which we have given in this littl^ 
work. 

But now the question arose: How can you 
account for your experience of the second 
blessing? The answer was simple and easy, 
and may be explained in a few words. 

When I was first converted, I felt and knew 
that there was a complete change of heart. I 
had not the faintest idea that anything remained 
to be done to make it any more pure. Such 
was my experience and conviction until I heard 
this doctrine preached, which described my 
heart, as well as those of all others in a mere 
justified state, as being still depraved with 
inherent sin, left there at conversion, called 
'" moral pollution,'^ '^ remains of the carnal 
mind,'' ^' roots of bitterness,'' etc. 

Such were the ambiguous terms used to des- 
cribe it, that no definite idea was conveyed. 
Had the preacher, or an angel from heaven, 
declared that there was, what the carnal mind 
signifies, " enmity against God" in my heart, 



Treatise on Sanctification, 251 

I would have instantly repelled the idea as 
false. But thus portraying the heart, and 
having the utmost confidence in the preacher's 
goodness and ability, the result was, as he 
described I felt, receiving every word as truth. 
He said I would find a load of sin, which was 
original sin, and which would depress my soul; 
and it came just as he said. It was also said, 
I would get relieved of it in the manner already 
indicated, and so I did. Now I say, that this 
feeling was produced by mental hallucination. 
The load of sin, so called, was preached into 
my heart, and, according to the other feature 
of the psychological impression, preached out 
again, when relieved from it, and which I sup- 
posed was the second blessing, and in either 
case the spirit or truth of God had nothing 
whatever to do; for "the spirit and the word 
agree." And as we have seen, that the word 
of God is perfectly irreconcilable with this 
theory, therefore it was only to be accounted 
for upon this well-known law of mind: that 
of impression according to what the mind 
believes to be the truth, whether it is or not. 
When I was thus relieved, I was just where I 



252 ^^^ ^^^ Paths, 

was before hearing this error preached. This 
philosophy is thus explained by Paul: '*As a 
man thinketh, so is he." This load of depres- 
sion, received upon this principle, may be 
illustrated thus: Suppose a man away from 
home and his property, and hears, from a 
source of unquestionable veracity, that his pro- 
perty and family are all engulfed in an earth- 
quake, or destroyed in any other way^ would 
he not immediately be overwhelmed with 
intense depression of spirit? But pn return- 
ing home, he finds the report to have been 
false, finding everything as he left; would not 
his depressive load instantly be gone, and his 
heart leap for joy at the discovery? 

So it was with me. Before hearing this 
second conversion doctrine preached, I felt I 
had a great possession, which made me happy 
from day to day; but when I heard this bad 
and erroneous doctrine preached, my happiness 
was gone. But when I found it a deception, 
not founded upon the teachings of Jesus, the 
apostles and prophets, the psychological hal- 
lucination vanished, and of course my peace 
and joy returned again. This was the result 



Treatise on Sanctification. 253 

of my investigation. The error produced tlie 
same effect, as long as it was believed to be 
truth, as though it were such. 

The conclusion at which we arrive, in order 
to account for the experience for others in the 
church, in relation to this doctrine, may be 
summed up thus: 

First, there is one class joins the churchy 
either from deception or design, or both, who 
are never converted at alh Some of them sup- 
posing themselves to have been converted, and 
yet dissatisfied with their experience, are 
induced to seek what is taught as being sane- 
tification. Now being in earnest, God receives 
them, but it is only the first, not the second 
blessing. This is their conversion, and it is so 
vast a change in comparison with what they 
ever had before, that they speak of it accord- 
ingly. 

Another class who seek this blessing, are 
those who have become backslidden in heart 
from God, and all do this who leave their first 
love, and who must return and repent, or perish, 
and being reclaimed profess it as the second 
blessing, their backslidings are healed ^ and God 



254 ^^^ Old Paths, 

again loves them freely. But instead of its 
being a higher state of purity than that Avhich 
they enjoyed when first converted, they are 
simply restored to that. 

Then there is another class who have never 
taken their hearts out of Christ^s keeping, they 
have always taken heed to the injunction " abide 
in me,'' and his words have remained in them, 
and they have been kept in the same sancti- 
fied state, as when Jesus said unto them, '' Now 
ye are clean through the words I have spoken 
unto you.'' 

These may be deluded by the false doctrine 
of the impurity of all mere justified believers, 
supposing themselves unclean in heart, when 
they are not, and induced to seek deliverance 
from it, under the hallucination of the error, 
and experience what they suppose is the second 
blessing, but which leaves them no purer than 
when first converted. 

This class will never be heard belittling 
their conversion, and the reason why, is simply 
because they had one, which to them and all 
others, is a perfect moral resurrection from the 
dead. To such, " Old things are passed awa}', 



Treatise on Sanctification. 255 

and behold, all things are become new." 
These three classes, scripturally and philo- 
sophically, fully accounts for all the experience 
there is in relation to this doctrine. If there 
was nothing more to prove it an error, than 
the fact that it makes schism and divisions of 
heart in the church, this alone would be con- 
clusive; indeed it has reached such a height 
that it is almost impossible to work in harmony 
with, those who labor under this delusion. 
Their history in the past has been when this 
disaffection has culminated; they have broken 
off from the unholy membership in small 
parties, and set up for themselves, there has, 
however, never been religion enough among 
them to live together in Christian fellowship 
but for very short periods. It would seem 
that if they were as holy as they suppose and 
profess to be, such would not have been the 
case. And does not this historic fact demon- 
strate that they are not in spirit and faith, 
those who compose the church *' founded upon 
the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself 
being the chief corner stone," and against which 
he declared "the gates of hell shall not pre- 



256 ^-^^ Old Paths. 

vail ?" The gates of hell have always prevailed 
against their efforts to form churches, and in a 
little while they are found individually creep- 
ing back again among the unholy. But their 
plan now seems changed, and they are going 
to take the church by storm, and it is a storm; 
and suppose they should, would there be any 
more union and brotherly love among them, 
than when alone in separate organizations ? 

But we believe that this very effort will prove 
the utter extermination of the evil. It will 
be another example of Satan over-doing him- 
self. Its features have became so intolerant 
that it compels the reconsideration of the whole 
question, which is hereafter to be, not when 
are justified believers to experience this second 
blessing, but is the doctrine true, and Jesus 
and the apostles, and not Mr. Wesley or any 
other authors, are to decide as to what is truth ? 
The question must be met upon its merits. 
The parties are distinct, and more so in heart 
than in theory, we mean in theory up to the 
present time. 

The attempt to trim along between these, 
and to try to make it appear both are right, is 



Treatise on Sanctification, 257 

simply absurd, the only tendency of which 
is to feed the fires, and such displease both 
sides vastly more than though they fearlessly 
defined their position. 

Another of the tactics of these deluded 
people is to gather at all the camp-meetings a 
few from each church, coming from great dis- 
tances, make a multitude, and when there, 
nothing can be heard but this erroneous theory; 
here it appears in its most offensive form. 

The ministers of our day who embrace this 
peculiar view, are generally of the lower grade 
of intellect, and especially the poorer students 
of the Bible; you hear them appeal oftener to 
our standard authors than to Jesus and Paul. 
They generally take possession of our revivals, 
and as a class they are far from being our firm, 
straightforward, intelligent Christian member- 
ship, whose examule is salutary in community; 
and if sustained by the preacher in charge, by 
sj^mpathizing with their views, the real intelli- 
gent Christians of the church are put upon the 
anxious seat. Come to the altar with your 
corrupt, filthy and bad hearts, and we will pray 
for you, are the addresses they make. Thus 
17 



258 ^^^ 0^^ Paths. 

are they kept back from taking part in these 
meetings. This is not the case in any other 
church but ours. The revivals there are carried 
on by the business men in the community, the 
men of consistency and power. 

But we submit this little work, feeling con- 
fident that it will have some influence in restrain- 
ing the march of this worst error in the whole 
Protestant church at the present day, and 
indeed the only troublesome thing in ours. 
We have no sympathy with luke-warm or 
cold-hearted Christianity. The whole church 
should be warned to return to their first love, 
where all was interest; all was aglow with 
love; all was labor for the salvation of others. 
Give no quarters to the sentiment, that those 
who have fallen from this state of single-eyed 
purity are, nevertheless, justified believers. 
Under the preaching of this truth, we may 
expect* to see such a revival as we have never 
before witnessed. 

We fearlessly put the truth of God against 
the errors of men, between which, if there is 
conflict, we unhesitatingly adopt the declara- 
tion: ''Let God be true, but every man a liar." 







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